Parkay is a

margarine Margarine (, also , ) is a spread used for flavoring, baking, and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The spread was orig ...

made by

ConAgra Foods Conagra Brands, Inc. (formerly ConAgra Foods) is an American consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Conagra makes and sells products under various brand names that are available in supermarkets, restaurants, ...

and introduced in 1937. It is available in spreadable, sprayable, and squeezable forms. Parkay was made and sold under the

Kraft The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arra ...

brand name by

National Dairy Products Corporation Kraft Foods Inc. was a Multinational corporation, multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion wor ...

from 1937 to 1969, then ''Kraftco Corporation'' from 1969 to 1976, ''Kraft, Inc.'' from 1976 to 1989, ''Kraft General Foods, Inc.'' from 1989 to 1995, ''Nabisco Brands, Inc.'' from 1995 to 1999, and ''ConAgra Foods, Inc.'' since 1999. The product label states that the product contains 0g

trans fat Trans fat, also called trans-unsaturated fatty acids, or trans fatty acids, is a type of unsaturated fat that naturally occurs in small amounts in meat and milk fat. It became widely produced as an unintentional byproduct in the industrial pro ...

. Yet the ingredients listed on the package include hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. The

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respon ...

allows food manufacturers to claim "0g of trans fats," so long as each serving of the product has less than half a gram of trans fat.FDA. Food Labeling Guide. Revised October 2009. Section 7-L48

Advertising

In the 1940s and 1950s, Parkay was the long-time sponsor of the radio program ''

The Great Gildersleeve ''The Great Gildersleeve'' is a radio situation comedy broadcast in the United States from August 31, 1941 to 1958. Initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, it was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. The series was built a ...

''. Starting in 1973, a long-running advertising campaign was introduced for Parkay featuring a mechanically animated "talking tub" of the product. A typical ad depicted a sort of humorous verbal sparring match between a container of Parkay repeatedly saying "Butter" and a human actor insisting that it is actually Parkay. When the spokesperson tastes the product, they conclude that its creamy texture and buttery taste mean it really is butter, to which the container replies, "Parkay." The tagline: '' nnouncer"Parkay Margarine from Kraft--the flavor says..." ackage"...butter."'' Along with the TV ad, there was a series of "PARKAY" radio jingles, :30 seconds, written by David Grober and with a variety of performers; the most famous of these performers was

Thurl Ravenscroft Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft (; February 6, 1914May 22, 2005) was an American actor and bass singer. He was known as one of the booming voices behind Kellogg's Frosted Flakes animated spokesman Tony the Tiger for more than five decades. He was al ...

, who was also the voice of Tony the Tiger. The 1973 commercial featured a voice over claiming Parkay tastes like butter. An argumentative housewife looks at a square box of Parkay in her kitchen and says "Parkay". The box of Parkay responds "butter", and they go back and forth until she tries a taste of it and she says "butter". At that point, the margarine says "Parkay!" This was possibly the first Parkay Margarine commercial that featured the phrase "the flavor says butter". The 1975 commercial featured a laughing Latino man argues with a square box of margarine because when he opens up the Parkay lid, it says to him "mantequilla" (butter) and he did know it is or was margarine. But when he finally tastes it, he then or momentarily says "butter" or "mantequilla" right before the box says "Parkay" in Spanish. The 1976 commercial featured

Todd Bridges Todd Anthony Bridges (born May 27, 1965) is an American actor. He portrayed Willis Jackson on the sitcom ''Diff'rent Strokes'' and had a recurring role as Monk on the sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris.'' Bridges worked as a commentator on the telev ...

, best known for ''

Diff'rent Strokes ''Diff'rent Strokes'' is an American television sitcom, which aired on NBC from November 3, 1978, to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985, to March 7, 1986. The series stars Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges as Arnold and Willis Jackson, r ...

,'' along with an as yet unidentified child actor, and followed a similar storyline to the earlier Parkay ads. Similar commercials feature actors

Vic Tayback Victor E. Tayback (January 6, 1930 – May 25, 1990) was an American actor. He is known for his role as Mel Sharples in the film '' Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'' (1974) and the television series '' Alice'' (1976–1985). The latter earned him ...

Mel Stewart Milton "Mel" Stewart (September 19, 1929 – February 24, 2002) was an American character actor, television director, and musician who appeared in numerous films and television shows from the 1960s to the 1990s. He is best known for playing Hen ...

. This ad campaign was also spoofed in a skit from the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series ''

The Electric Company ''The Electric Company'' is an American educational children's television series produced by the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, now known as Sesame Workshop). It was co-created by Paul Dooley, Joan Ganz Cooney, and Lloyd Morrisett. The ...

'' (with cast member

Skip Hinnant Joseph Howard "Skip" Hinnant (born September 12, 1940) is an American actor, singer, voice actor and comedian. Career Skip Hinnant's first major role was as Cathy's boyfriend, Ted, on ''The Patty Duke Show'' from 1963 to 1965. In 1967, he pla ...

providing the foodstuff's voice). The brand slogan is memorialized in

GangStarr Gang Starr was an American hip hop duo, consisting of Texas record producer DJ Premier and Massachusetts rapper Guru. For the entirety of their association, they were based out of Brooklyn, New York. Gang Starr was at its height from 1989 to 20 ...

's 1993 hip-hop single, "

DWYCK The first season of the American streaming television series ''Luke Cage'', which is based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, follows a former convict with superhuman strength and unbreakable skin who fights crime in Harlem, New Yo ...

References

External links

Parkay
{{ConAgra Margarine brands Conagra Brands brands Products introduced in 1937