Tootsie Pop Wrappers

As I was thinking about the course and the ways that companies have profited from the images of Indians in the past. In doing so I am reminded that the Tootsie Company ran and continues to run a design on what is approximated to appear on 30 percent of the overall wrappers send out that are used to wrap the famous lollipop. That image is the image of a Native American male in a full headdress shooting an arrow at a star on the wrapper of the famous lollipop maker’s product (Mikkelson).
According to the website entitled “ Snopes   “ it mentioned that there have been many urban legends over the years as to the significance of finding the icon depicted above on the wrapper in some cases it was thought that you would win free lollipops if you got a wrapper with the above mentioned image on it. However this according to the site entitled “Snopes”   is proven to be a false idea and mealy just one of many other urban legends surrounding the wrapper.
 However the site did mention that while the Tootsie company doesn’t acknowledge any contest regarding the image on the wrapper independent stores that sell the company’s products might run a campaign that when a wrapper as described above was redeemed at the store the store might issue a free lollipop to the customer in return (Mikkelson) .
 It would be nice if the Tootsie Company would work with Tribes to come up with a system for donation for example every time a wrapper was mailed into the company the Tootsie Company would make a donation to Native American Tribe. If the company wanted to continue the campaign. It would also give the chance for Native American Tribes to address any concerns with the logo and find something that would be less stereotypical of Native Americans to put on the wrapper as well (Mikkelson).
However on a personal not my thought is that the imagery should be removed completely as it is stereotypical of Native Americans and their culture.

Works Cited

Mikkelson, David. "Indian on the Tootsie Roll Wrapper." 1 July 2014. Snopes. 17 August 2017. <http://www.snopes.com/business/redeem/tootsie.asp>.





Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 18, 2017 at 1:18 PM

    Interesting. I never noticed that image on the Tootsie Pop wrapper and I've seen quite a few of them over the years as my father does business with that company and has for over two decades.

    ReplyDelete

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