• Betty Crocker has unveiled a refreshed look called “Bettier than Ever.”
• The brand update includes new packaging and the launch of a set of cake-themed handbags.

General Mills’ Betty Crocker is synonymous with baking, selling mixes for cakes, cookies, muffins, and other baked goods, frostings and decorations, flavored mashed potatoes, and bakeware. Additionally, Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, first released in 1950, continues to be published today.

Betty Crocker, however, is also a character, first created in 1921; her “signature” would appear on the brand logo in 1944, and the familiar red spoon was introduced in 1954. A fictional character, she was conceived after hundreds of letters were received seeking baking advice. The advertising department at Washburn-Crosby (then the brand’s owner) convinced executives that personalized responses from a fellow housewife would be better received, so they developed the Betty Crocker persona, choosing “Betty” because it sounded friendly and “Crocker” after a company director.