Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2010
Jolly Green Giant, Blue Earth, Minn.
You can tell you've done a good marketing job if you can convince people that they should pay to advertise your product. That's what happened in 1978, when the town of Blue Earth, Minn. — wanting to commemorate the completion of nearby I-90 — chose to erect a 55-ft.-tall statue of the Jolly Green Giant. (Green Giant has a plant in the area.) The vegetable company gave the town permission to use its symbol as long as the townspeople provided 100% of the funds. They did, and so today the verdant 4-ton Hercules smiles upon travelers throughout southern Minnesota.