Pretzel Thought Incoming!

I think I figured out why there are so many BS origin stories about pretzels. 

Mascots. 

There were no advertisement mascots when the industrialization of pre-bagged pretzels starting taking off in the 1820s and '30s. I mean there were jingles and ad copy, but no physical people. And, certainly, this was well before animation. Logos existed and many companies created 2D characters to promote their products. Or, static pieces of art. Think about old Western movies where a wooden indian would be standing in front of the general store, holding matches for customers who needed a light. Think of a figurehead on a ship; it certainly represents the spirit of the ship, but such things didn't translate well to advertisement. 

One of the oldest mascots/logos is the Quaker Oats Man, introduced in 1877. But it wasn't until the 1970s when they had an actual actor on TV give him a voice. The logo did the talking, representing honesty and pride of work, much like the popular public opinion of Quakers. In 1890 Aunt Jemima was introduced as the first living ad mascot, portrayed by Nancy Green, a former Confederate slave, who toured the country giving cooking shows. Live mascots were being introduced at college football games in the 1890s, mostly animals, but human mascots soon arose as people in costumes pumped up the crowd. 

During WWI, Mr. Peanut, The Morton Salt Girl and the Sun-Maid Girl were introduced as mascot logos. And with the wide spread ownership of TVs, talking mascots were introduced to hype up products. The 1950s and '60s were the golden age of cartoon mascots. Try to think of any kid's cereal brand that doesn't have a cartoon mascot (Kix is the only one I know of.)

And here lies the point: pre-packaged pretzels were around a lot longer than mascots, so they never had a face to sell the product. Since all mass produced pretzels had the same shapes (pretzel knot or stick: other shapes didn't become popular until the 1970s with bar mix snacks), the only way to sell your product was with the written word. The oldest pretzel mascot is the "Dutch Boy" from Tom Sturgis Pretzels, introduced as a logo in 1972 and as a foam suit used at county fairs and the like, but never used as a talking mascot as far as I can tell.

Think of it this way; mascots, particularly cartoon mascots, are the ones who tell the story of their product, and we believe it no matter how silly it is. We fully accept that Keebler cookies are baked in a tree by elves lead by Ernest J. Keebler (Ernie to his friends). There are only two stories, the one in the ads and the actual story of how the company formed. The actual story behind the creation of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes is very interesting, and partly 'R' rated, but more people know more about Tony the Tiger than about the Kellogg family history. The same with Snap, Crackle and Pop. Or Dig'um, the Trix Rabbit, Josephine the Plumber, Mr. Whipple, Rosie the Waitress, or Ronald McDonald. 

There are so many origin stories about pretzels because there were so many pretzel bakers vying for customers using only print ads to garner attention, and the stories had to become more and more outrageous to stand out from the crowd. A single mascot, like Speedy, doesn't have to say much about origin of Alka-Seltzer, he just has to talk about how effective it is and look cute.

Fun fact, the name of the gorilla that beat up American Tourister luggage in the '70s was named Otto. When Otto died in 1980, his role was taken over by actor Don McLeod, who also portrayed the gorilla in "Trading Places."