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Green Giant and Le Sueur are brands of frozen and canned vegetables owned by General Mills. The company's mascot is the Jolly Green Giant. == Company and brand history == The Minnesota Valley Canning Company was founded in 1903 in Le Sueur, Minnesota. It used the brand name "Le Sueur Z" for canned vegetables starting in 1903; "Le Sueur" by itself was first used in 1933.〔Record in Trademark Electronic Search System, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (search at USPTO )〕 The brand "Green Giant Great Big Tender Peas" was first used in 1925,〔 and the figure of a giant was introduced three years later. The brand was created in response to the discovery of a new variety of pea, the Prince of Wales: they were, as Martin Sloan relates, "oblong, wrinkled, and, as peas go, huge. Despite their size, they were tender, and had a special flavor and sweetness that couldn't be matched. The company went to the brands for which it canned and found that none of them wanted to sell the new peas. So Minnesota Valley decided to sell them under its own label. Rather than apologize for the size of the peas, they decided to emphasize it. They named the peas 'Green Giant.'"〔Sloan 1999, p. 19.〕 The original mascot had very little in common with the familiar green figure of today: he was a scowling caveman〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Character of the Week: Jolly Green Giant )〕 wearing a bearskin rather than foliage (this original concept actually owed much to a dark Brothers Grimm fairy tale, "Der Bärenhäuter" – "Bearskin"〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Grimm 101: Bearskin )〕).〔Sloan 1999, p. 19; Dregni 2001, p. 35; Dregni 2006, p. 103.〕 In 1935 a young copywriter, Leo Burnett,〔Burnett also created Charlie Tuna for StarKist, Morris the Cat for 9-Lives, and the Keebler Elves.〕 revised the face of the brand: "he traded the bearskin for a leafy suit, gave the Giant a smile...and put the word 'Jolly' in front of the Giant's name."〔Sloan 1999, p.19〕 The Giant made his first television appearances in 1958,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Scary Green Giant! )〕 voiced by such actors as Thurl Ravenscroft and (most familiarly) Elmer "Len" Dresslar, Jr.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=TV ACRES: Advertising Mascots > Jolly Green Giant (Green Giant Company) )〕 The booming "Ho, ho, ho" became the Giant's signature tagline in 1961.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1960s Green Giant TV commercial )〕 Since 1972 he has had a young apprentice, the Little Green Sprout, who represents the consumer.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Little Green Sprout in Green Giant Corn Commercial II Released 1972 )〕 The company was renamed to the Green Giant Company in 1950. In 1979 it merged with the Pillsbury Company; in 2001, the group was acquired by General Mills; all of its owners have been based in the Twin Cities area.〔"Our Story," (Green Giant web page )〕 In Canada the brand ''Le Sieur'' has been used since at least 1964,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Canadian trade-mark data )〕 instead of ''Le Sueur'' – presumably to avoid the implications of the French word ''sueur'' (= 'sweat').〔This despite the fact that the Minnesota town of Le Sueur is named for the Frenchman Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, and the French for 'sweat' is ''la'' ''sueur''.〕 In 1963 a 7" 33rpm EP, "When Pea-Pickers Get Together," featuring Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Green Valley Singers was released. Side one was a medley of popular folk songs, while side two told the story of how Ford and the Jolly Green Giant collaborated on writing his signature TV song ("How The Green Giant Found His Song (And Almost Lost His Ho! Ho! Ho!)"). The jacket for the record gives the official "biography" of the Jolly Green Giant. In 1964 The Kingsmen scored a hit at #4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 with "The Jolly Green Giant," a novelty tune about the Giant's love life.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Kingsmen "Jolly green giant" )〕 In 1999 the marketing industry's leading publication, ''Advertising Age'', posited a list of the twentieth century's top ten advertising icons, and placed the Green Giant third (behind the Marlboro Man and Ronald McDonald, and ahead of Betty Crocker, the Energizer Bunny, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Aunt Jemima, the Michelin Man, Tony the Tiger, and Elsie (Borden cow )).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ad Age Advertising Century: Top 10 Icons )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Green Giant」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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