Sun-Maid Raisin Girl Makeover Inspires Our List Of People Behind The Ad Icons

The original Sun-Maid Raisin girl at left, and the new, CGI girl at right.

Lorraine Collett Peterson In 1915

The original Sun-Maid Raisin Girl, designed after model Lorraine Collett Petersen who posed for the logo in 1915, was given a digital makeover in 2006. For some reason, the world is only catching on to this in 2009 as she’s a top Google search today.

Critics are up in arms about her new, CGI look. Personally, we find CGI cold and impersonal–the exact opposite of the original, warm, Sun-Maid Raisin girl logo. At any rate, it got us thinking about other legendary ad icons and wondering about the people behind them.

Miss Chiquita

Puerto Rico-born Elsa Miranda (no relation to movie star Carmen) was the most famous Miss Chiquita–purveyor of bananas. In 1945 and 1946, Miranda made numerous personal appearances in the movies, in commercials and even with the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra.

Tropic-Ana

Tropic-Ana was based on Chrissie Kesten Pool, who modeled for the drawing and played the role of mascot. The character was phased out some time in the 1990’s and recently Tropicana underwent a complete redesign of its packaging after abandoning a search for the next Tropic-Ana in 2003.

The Land-O-Lakes Maiden

The official Land O’Lakes website doesn’t give the name of any real person who inspired the Land O’Lakes maiden. What it does say is that, in 1928, they received a painting of an Indian maiden facing the viewer and holding a butter carton and that painting inspired a new design later simplified and modernized by illustrator Jess Betlach in 1939.

Aunt Jemima

The original Aunt Jemima, Nancy Green, was born into slavery in 1834. Can you believe that shiz? She signed a lifetime contract with the Aunt Jemima folks and appeared in thousands of ads all over the world until she got too old or whatevs. We know that’s exploitative, but good on her for escaping the slavery biz.

Uncle Ben

According to the Uncle Ben site, the character known to the world as Uncle Ben was based on “an African American rice farmer known to rice millers in and around Houston for consistently producing the highest quality rice.” Not much else is known about him except that he died sometime before the late 1940s when the president of the company decided to call their product, which they’d been exclusively supplying to the Armed Forces during World War II, Uncle Ben’s® Converted® Brand Rice.

Juan Valdez

The original Juan Valdez, coffee slinger for Colombia, was Jose F. Duval. He started in 1959 and served for ten years. Carlos Sanchez was the next Juan Valdez and remained in the role for 37 years. (The mule is named Conchita.)