Aunt Jenny

Aunt Jenny was an advertising character created for Spry Vegetable Shortening. Primarily portrayed by Edith Spencer, she was best known as host and narrator of the long-lived radio show, Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories, which ran from 1937 to 1956.

Origins

In 1936, Lever Brothers, part of the large corporation Unilever, introduced Spry Vegetable Shortening as a competitor to the long-successful shortening Crisco, produced by Proctor and Gamble. Aunt Jenny was intended to give a pleasant face to what might otherwise be seen as a boring or at least uninspiring product, therefore presenting a challenge to writers of advertisement copy. Sometimes even Jenny?s enthusiastic writers seemed to be reaching for things to say?on the final page of the Aunt Jenny?s Favorite Recipes cookbook appears a blurb boasting that doughnuts made with Spry are ?so light and digestible a child can eat ?em.? For the most part, however, Aunt Jenny was successful, and within mere months Spry had consumed nearly half of Crisco?s considerable market share.

Related Topics:
Lever Brothers - Unilever - Crisco - Proctor and Gamble

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In appearance, Aunt Jenny was a slightly plump, grandmotherly woman with bright white hair, thin spectacles, and an ever-present baking apron. Her demeanor was sweet, kind, helpful, and almost bizarrely enthusiastic, especially regarding her home cooking and Spry Vegetable Shortening in particular. She spoke in a plain and homey manner, often dropping the ending g of words like cooking.

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