Quaker Oats - Bigger Than You Know

[@pete5668]

Zildjian, the manufacturer of the finest cymbals in the world, turns 400 this year. They're a fascinating company that is worth a video.

[@JoshuaC923]

As a musician, that would be very interesting, as well as other music companies👍🏻👍🏻

[@entezami777]

I wonder if Quaker Oats had a hand in that company too?

[@davecerv]

As a musician/drummer, I support this!

[@pete5668]

@@entezami777 haha

[@sootchh4055]

Oh yes I'd be all for that! Story of Zildjian vs Sabian.

[@madisonmanson1324]

I live in a city that has a Quaker Oats factory, Cedar Rapids iowa. And we love it because there’s “ crunch berry days “ where you can tell they’re making crunch berries that day because the whole city smells like crunch berries

[@tamcar04]

That sounds amazing! 😂

[@cadillacdeville5828]

I actually had a lotion that smells like it. From Bath and Body Works

[@perpetualcollapse]

I lived near a bakery for a while and I swear that every Thursday evening they were making Pop-Tarts or at least something that smelled like Pop-Tarts

[@mjrodriguez8670]

There was also a Quaker Oats plant in St. Joseph, MO. That is now an ethanol plant.

[@countvronsky4025]

Hell. Yes.

[@MMID303]

One thing you didn't mention was the Quaker Oats Science Club. Kids were unknowingly experimented on by ingesting radioactive cereal. The parents sued and finally settled in 1998.

[@andythekitsune]

At the Fernald state school or whatever it was called IIRC

[@cos5020]

Had to look this up because its absolutely insane. I knew a lot of messed up stuff happened in the mid to early 1900's but still surprised MIT experimented of disenfranchised children by feeding them radioactive isotopes in oat meal. Even more surprising they were funded by Quaker Oats and that the experiment was approved by a part of the federal government (Atomic Energy Commission)

[@bondservant4jesus]

Wow, that's messed up.

[@chrisanerton]

Was about to comment on it. Quaker Oats committed actual crimes against humanity. But I think from what I remember, they were intentionally poisoning over a hundred disabled children.

[@Corkoth55]

Crazy how he left that one out hmm..

[@glennsapaden7543]

Quaker Oats helped finance the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, hoping to publicize its attempt to launch a candy bar line.

[@davidthomas283]

Only they couldn't make a proper candy bar and the WANKA BAR was recalled.

[@ChevyCamaroIsBetter]

@@davidthomas283 “wanka”

[@davidthomas283]

@@ChevyCamaroIsBetter Sorry "WONKA"!

[@ocuyo6044]

@@davidthomas283 Quaker got lucky. It's a brand that sets the customers' expectations so high that no product could ever live up to it. The only candy product I can think of that feels like a real-life Wonka product is Jelly Belly. Nestle should've bought them.

[@davidthomas283]

@@ocuyo6044 Nestle did aquire the WONKA brand

[@samkuzel]

Hey Mike, you may find this interesting: I was raised Quaker, and I can't speak for everybody, but back when I was going to meeting regularly (we call our churches "meetings") multiple people there voiced their distaste for the Quaker Oats brand name and mascot. After speaking with some of the other parishioners about this I got worked up enough to write an angry letter to the company demanding they change their name and logo (I was an idealistic teenager). They responded and were polite and everything, but I was still pretty peeved. I did think it was funny they responded. One of the points of contention is the portrayal on the oat packaging of what seems to be a 17th or 18th-century Quaker wearing blue clothing, which was forbidden at the time because blue dye was almost exclusively produced by chattel slave labor, under conditions that were extremely hazardous to the enslaved people, so Quakers mostly steered clear of blue clothing for centuries (or so I'm told). Quakers are also on the whole generally anti-consumerist, so that contributed to the dislike of the brand as well - it can be seen as antithetical to the religion to have a huge company named after us. I was aware of some of the entanglements and acquisitions in your video, but not all of them. I was particularly surprised by Jos. A. Banks and Fisher Price! Very interesting. If my old Sunday school teacher sees your video he may faint! 😳lol To be clear, above I'm referring to the more traditional type of Quakers (unprogrammed tradition). A lot of this stuff (maybe all of it?) might not apply to the less traditional Quakers (programmed tradition). Very informative video as per usual!

[@kevincamp1995]

I am a convinced Friend (Quaker) and can vouch for the accuracy of the above comment. Quaker Oats is a mixed bag with us--we're glad for the name recognition, but they didn't exactly ask for our permission to use our name.

[@samkuzel]

@@kevincamp1995 Hey! *gestures the Quaker jazz-hands thing at you* Cool to run into another Quaker on here, lol. Do y'all do the jazz hands thing instead of clapping at your meeting too? I've never been 100% sure whether that's regional or a widespread Friends tradition

[@kevincamp1995]

@@samkuzel Yes, we do!

[@anonuser12345]

What does it mean to be raised quaker in the modern day?

[@nessleepk]

3 words. Dinosaur Egg Oatmeal. This is a timely video because my gramps would make me that every morning when I stayed with him, and it will be his birthday on Friday. I've never switched my oatmeal preference and have been eating it for 2 decades

[@kamichan127]

Absolutely love dino egg oatmeal haha !

[@tacowednesdays]

I think Luxottica would be a good subject for a video. For being almost unheard of, they have almost a complete monopoly over the eyewear and vision industry.

[@DhrubajyotiRaja01]

*Such an abominable Hypocrisy of EU Anti-trust bodies allowing merger of Essilor and Luxottica* .....

[@pete5668]

Yup, somebody needs to go to prison over that monopoly.

[@MrKanjidude]

Sounds like a good and well run company. I love their Quaker mascot. I'm not American, but I find it charming and personable in a sea of otherwise bland modern logos/identities. He just looks like such a nice fellow.

[@TheAmericanPrometheus]

"I'm a man of my word"

[@GeekIWG]

Having grown up as a Quaker (Evangelical Friends Church), I always thought it cool that the Quaker Oats brand was giving us some representation, and in a good way too.

[@IAmNotAFunguy]

This video is very close to me (literally) because I live in Akron, OH where Quaker Oats got started! If you're ever in town you can see the former oat factory and silos which are actually student dorms in the present!

[@moneysins]

One of those times when a company turning into a conglomerate didn’t end in disaster

[@kochspostulates6149]

Except the time they paid MIT to do research on giving radioactive oatmeal to handicapped kids

[@Hellllllo852]

@@kochspostulates6149 ☠️ damn

[@cwgzz81]

Not yet… but I’m sure they will fall one day

[@Xeonerable]

Its kind of scary how much of the food industry is owned by PepsiCo.

[@Heymrk]

And PepsiCo is owned by the Mormon church.

[@rcwilliams4959]

Fun fact: Quaker had commercials produced by Jay Ward Studios (of Bullwinkle & Rocky fame) months before they even had the formula for the cereal itself. They were good at planning things.

[@jamescooley5744]

In the 50s Quaker bought Burry's cookies, which gave us snacks like Scooter Pies, Gauchos, Mr Chips, etc. Some time in the 80s they sold Burry off to foreign interests, and the Burry brands went away.

[@rcwilliams4959]

@@jamescooley5744 Always a sucker for a good Gaucho!

[@thebrentist5403]

More impressive than how many different markets they have been in, is how many brands they have grown to become household names! Wow

[@grawman67]

Excited for another good video! And it's awesome to see you getting sponsors! You have such consistently high quality and you're entertaining too

[@machine-shopbilly6584]

Funny how they removed a nice, wholesome black woman for "racism"

[@Yoosurnaym]

Genuinely look forward to seeing these videos pop up in my feed every Wednesday. Regardless of if it's a company I know well or have never heard of, I never miss a video.

[@Jessie_Helms]

Jos A Bank finally getting a highlight on here! I love it! I worked there for several years

[@blodyholy_]

As someone with a Quaker Oats production facility that produces Crunch Berrys, known as ‘Crunchberry Day’ locally when they do, this video makes me smile. (I believe that was the building sign in your opening shot monologue.)

[@animemaster195]

I love crunchberry day, downtown smells the best. Or if the wind blows towards me it's a great day

[@seattlekarim964]

My takeaway: Pepsi is huge.

[@DETSRC313]

One of the biggest and Nestle

[@st.charlesstreet9876]

I love this history about the businesses of different corporations. Thank You very much for this posting!

[@ForeverRememberable]

Growing up we used to live near a Quaker Oats factory but I believe it shut down, I remember visiting my dad when he worked there when I was really little. But one time my mom's then boyfriend gave us this huge box of a variety pack of Quaker Oats chewy granola bars and it took us months to finish this box and anytime we wanted a snack my mom made us eat a granola bar. I haven't been able to eat a Quaker Oats chewy granola bar since.

[@MrMagnaFarce]

King Vitaman is the greatest cereal Quaker Oats ever made and I miss it dearly (discontinued in 2019).

[@bdfgdfghdfhgfitdfyutdtydry]

removing a black woman from a syrup bottle to be more progressive is still funny to me

[@Ag-0147]

Probably not related at all to the business aspect of Quakers but whenever I think/see the box of their oatmeal, my mind immediately goes to Chuckie from Rugrats and his fear of “the guy on the oatmeal box.”

[@nicklake8316]

Easily my favorite series of yours! Would love to see you do this with blackrock or vanguard

[@ptorq]

Samuel Johnson (the English dictionary guy) defined oats as "A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." To which James Boswell (a Scot who wrote a biography on Johnson) responded: "Aye, and that's why England has such fine horses, and Scotland such fine people."

[@jodysindelar4867]

Thanks for the video, I worked for Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids for 43 years, good place to work made me a good living, retired 5 years ago at age 61!

[@pennykeller3048]

I love your videos! I see a lot of items that my kids are I love. I eat instant oatmeal from quacker every day and love it. My kids and I love the chewy granola bars, Gatorade, and Snapple. Thanks for sharing this.

[@exoticbutters2781]

The Aunt Jemima rebrand is one of the largest marketing travesties in history. I get why they did it, but removing black representation in branding because of a vocal minority was bad, but worst was replacing with that generic name and branding. So both sides lost with the rebrand.

[@RoundenBrown]

Erase representation, complain about lack of representation.

[@daleolson3506]

Go woke go broke

[@RBzee112]

Aunt Jemima is literally a slave caricature.

[@travishylton6976]

​@@RoundenBrown nope she was a mammie slave

[@robertlauncher]

Yeah of all the times he could’ve remained neutral instead of acting like it was objectively due to “Racially insensitivity,” this would’ve been a time to do it

[@2lostbikes]

Since I've started eating more oatmeal about two years ago, I always see the same situation play out on supermarket shelves. The store brand tubs of oatmeal sell out quickly while the Quaker Oats brand oatmeal tubs don't sell very well. The QO brand is consistently much more expensive by a factor of $2-$3. They'd be wise to lower their prices since, you know, oats are oats. There's not a lot of fussing over the taste between different brands.

[@BelievingRebel]

I always enjoy your “bigger than you know” videos. Thanks for taking a good look at Quaker. “Nothing is better for thee than me.”

[@TBustah]

I’m surprised you didn’t mention their foray into motion pictures. There was a popular children’s book about chocolate that a director by the name of Mel Stuart wanted to adapt into a film. As it happened, a producer associate of his (David L. Wolper) just so happened to already be talking to Quaker about the possibility of producing a film as a way to advertise a new chocolate bar (Quaker having just purchased a small candy company), and Stuart and Wolper convinced Quaker to purchase the film rights to the book and make a new chocolate bar named after the one in it. Oh, the book’s name? “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. They changed it to “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” to tie it in better with Quaker’s Wonka Bar, which ironically ended up being a complete failure (it had a tendency to melt on store shelves, leading to recalls) while the elaborate commercial for it would go on to be one of the most beloved family films of all time.

[@jeremymurphy7320]

Gotta say, as a resident of Cedar Rapids, IA where Quaker has their largest cereal plant, Crunch Berries are my favorite. Everyone knows when Crunch Berry Day is.

[@dnmr.boomer1448]

Yeah I stopped buying their syrup. 🤣 🤣 🤣 when we do buy. We usually get something else now.

[@ducky19991]

Wednesday = company man day, I never miss it 😅

[@harpman476]

Do a video on Ferrari versus Lamborghini. Not just because they’re based in the same country and have similar products. But due to its backstory, you see Lamborghini was to get revenge against Ferrari. For this reason, it will be a great topic.

[@ronniewatkins]

The Magic Pan was awesome! It's sorely missed in Atlanta

[@randyslegacy99]

Every time I hear you say that their "Syrup" is their best product, I can hear the northeast and Canada scream.

[@lajya01]

In Canada, we call that "pole syrup" (syrop de poteau)

[@dougbrowning82]

Everybody should scream. That stuff is mostly corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup. No maple or sugar at all.

[@leeleeanna1999]

Damn never even recognize how huge they are 🤯 great video man

[@tawon1984]

Wilford Brimley “Diabeetus” would be proud of this video.

[@poultrylord7300]

I love that these are getting more personal, with your favorite toys etc.

[@Fearmylogic]

An idea for another company to look at. McCormick. It's a company who's name and logo we see in just about every-single-store in the US. Their herbs and spices are EVERYWHERE. They are basically the #1 brand for herbs and spices, or at least, it feels that way. And Like myself, I bet most of us don't know anything about them. It's just the name we have seen most of our lives, so we continue to use their brand, since their brand is all we've ever really used.

[@Hodaggium]

I have fond memories of Snapple from 30 years ago. I drank it every day at school when I was in middle school.

[@corysimonavice2770]

I lived overseas in Taiwan and the Quaker brand was surprisingly huge over there. In Taiwan, it is a “health drink” brand, selling nutritious small shots to be drank everyday as a kind of mutivitamin/supplement. They have a great reputation and are even given out as premium gifts to guests and family

[@dankelly]

Wow. Wow. Wow. I had no idea they owned or used to own all those brands. Some of them are major head scratchers.

[@pilotgrrl1]

Never knew Quaker bought Stokely Van Camp! When I was 4, our family lived in the house next to the former Stokely mansion in Indianapolis.

[@danielmcmunn4784]

Interesting. My family farms and we sell a ton of oats to Quaker, but I never knew how diverse they were before PepsiCo bought them

[@TheInkPitOx]

Chucky from Rugrats was afraid of the Quaker mascot.

[@CapnKetchup]

I had NO idea that Quaker once owned Fisher-Price. And the best product I know them for is their single-serve package of flavored oatmeal. Quick, filling breakfast.

[@jamescooley5744]

They also bought Marx, which was one of the old-line US toymakers.

[@stephenkingsley_]

As a research chemist for QO Chemicals in the 80's and 90's I definitely associate Quaker Oats with chemicals. I never actually worked for them while they were owned by Quaker as I started right after the spin-off and the relocation of their R&D lab from Barrington, IL to Memphis, TN but basically everyone else I worked with had. It was sold again not long after I started there and our headquarters and R&D lab were moved to Indiana and I went with it. The division went down the tubes throughout the 90's and we were all eventually laid off. There are vestiges of the company still left but after multiple bankruptcies and sale of important product lines it's pretty much dead now and exists only as a trademark.

[@KrummyBrinkleJr.]

Time to rise and shine. You deserve oats of the highest caliber. Wont you try my wheat? Come get some grains friend! My barley is top of the shelf, I'm a man of my word. *I know a good rye when I see one*

[@edvaira6891]

Little known fact….QUAKER OATS PRODUCED THE 1971 CLASSIC MOVIE “WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY”!! I think it was the only movie they made, but, yeah, it was made by QUAKER OATS!

[@johnnycage112]

Please do Hooters

[@lowtier6565]

This would be a great episode

[@BacAttack]

Aunt Jemima was not racially insensitive. That woman was proud and honored to be on the label. What's racist was replacing her with a brand name that has no meaning. Even her family was not happy about it. I kept one of the bottles, and I transfer the Pearl Milling Company syrup to it as a matter of principal. The same goes for the Land O' Lakes butter box I kept with the Indian on it - the butter gets transfered to that box.

[@crisq8727]

get a job man , ain’t no way a productive member of society has that much free time to worry about something that irrelevant you’re worse than snowflakes

[@Perseid]

In the early 80s Quaker Oats bought a video game company called US Games and made games for the Atari 2600. It died along with the rest of the US console industry in 1983.

[@darexinfinity]

I just realized Capt Crunch is a cartoon version of the Quaker man.

[@rf159a]

Life Cereal is one of my favorite cereals.

[@TheGryfonclaw]

The Quaker Oats dude gives me this zen feeling I can't describe.

[@Alex_DC413]

NGL every time Quaker comes up, I think of Chucky Finster being afraid of "the guy on the oatmeal box."

[@stuffingtonjfluffypantsiii]

One of my favorite running gags in cartoons is Chuckie from Rugrats' fear of the Quaker Oats guy

[@luvadougla]

Never even knew quaker oats owned snapple!

[@David.Marquez]

Definitely crazy how huge they are, and even more unsurprising that they're owned by PepsiCo, like of course they are.

[@kimyona9746]

I heard Pepsi bought Quaker just for Gatorade

[@poeticsilence047]

​@Kimyona true but everything else is just extra money for them or they can sell them and get their money back.

[@bagenstb]

The official nickname of Cedar Rapids, Iowa is "The City of Five Seasons." But all you have to do is drive by the Quaker Oats factory there once to understand why locals call it "The City of Five Smells."

[@marlafar]

My sister went to Coe College and she used to joke about the "Oat dust" on her car every morning.

[@animemaster195]

Crunchberry day is the best smell day

[@MedicallyHigh]

My dad ran the chewy bar line at the Peterborough plant for over 30years!! He was one of 4 who made chewy bars! He always came home smelling so good!!

[@mightyfilm]

Their brand of breakfast cereals needs a video on their own. There's a lot of great stuff about them hiring Jay Ward Productions to create various mascots, not just the Cap'n. Especially interesting that most of their cereals just use the same formula, but change the shape.

[@pamelamays4186]

I ate a lot of Quaker Oatmeal growing up. When I was about four years old we got s free sample of Cap 'N' Crunch in the mail. The original Quentin The Quaker oatmeal mascot has been de-aged by about thirty years.

[@dougbrowning82]

Quaker Oats branding no longer appears on Cap 'N' Crunch cereal in Canada.

[@jalabi99]

Except for a few missteps it's amazing how successful the Quaker Oats Company has been in growing so many companies to billion-dollar revenues. They should have a Harvard Business School case study about them by now.

[@Ironstarfish]

Didn't the executive at Quaker oats put up the money for the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the candy?

[@1mlb704]

Like with a lot of your videos - I had no idea this company was so involved with so many other things. I like Quaker stuff, I still eat their oatmeal and cereals often.

[@lcarliner]

Years ago, one of the late Rush Limbaugh's sponsorship of his radio broadcast was Snapple. Considering his reported doctor shopping drug addiction, one of my favorite (and my original) quip was: "What do you get when you buy a Snapple drink? Ans.: "Rush" in a bottle!"

[@demigod1230]

I didn't realize my aunt was calling me Mikey likes because of the ad that's great.

[@tpnurdle1]

Driving by Quaker going through Cedar Rapids Iowa has quite the stench.

[@after-worknetwork6095]

RIP Aunt Jemima, the world without you is bleak

[@juan-gc3mf]

i used to work at a old quaker oats chemical plant in memphis

[@Markimark151]

You forgot to mention Quaker Oats was making chocolate bars, and they even financed the Willy Wonka movie, they later sold their movie production to Warner Bros and chocolate business to Nestle! I’m glad they didn’t cancel the Quaker Oats mascot! The snowflakes tried to cancel the mascot because of false claims of racism! The iconic mascot isn’t even hurting anyone!

[@mikeb8893]

Biggest Quaker Oats cereal factory in the world in my town in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

[@SynchroSk8]

My mom was a total health food nut, but in the 1980s I was able to convince her to buy the chocolate granola bars. I was in heaven!

[@Default78334]

Don't forget Quaker Oats brief and ill-fated attempt to get into the video game market with their acquisition of US Games in 1982.

[@alanstrong55]

Quaker is a giant for the most part. The Quaker Oats plant at Cedar Rapids, IOWA stinks like mad. My poor mother vomited after smelling that place. The residents of C.R. know that unwanted issue quite well. Even so, I love Life and Captain Crunch.

[@PortugueseKeto]

Wow you didn’t even mention how they produced the original Willy Wonka movie in order to promote their new candy line based on it

[@sparkswolverine]

QO was a staple in my childhood.

[@TakeWalker]

Oh, thank you for mentioning Pearl Milling Company. I keep seeing that everywhere and was wondering where the heck it had come from!

[@MentalLiberation]

5:43 MANDELBAUM! MANDELBAUM! MANDELBAUM!

[@alanr4845]

I miss Aunt Jemima

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

Know the history behind Aunt Jemima first.

[@ArcadeIsMyLife1]

Don't mess with the Quaker Oates guy. He's known by another name and that name is Solomon Kane.

[@JamesLewis2]

I thought that Quaker Oats also specifically got into video-game publishing; also, Pearl Milling Company is not just a brand, it's the name of the company that originated the Aunt Jemima brand.

[@Backroad_Junkie]

Have you done the megacorps, like Rubbermaid, ConAgra, Unilever, etc? It's interesting how much control of the market these corps own. The rise of companies like these was probably inevitable as different markets rise and fall, but it's interesting how they formed over the years...

[@cesar_otoniel]

He does have a video on Unilever

[@abiodunsulaiman2297]

He has already done Unilever.

[@devingiles6597]

@@abiodunsulaiman2297 Maybe Company Man should do a Bigger Than You Know on Mitsubishi. When I think of Mitsubishi, I think of their automobile division which is Mitsubishi Motors. Heck, I remember when I was a kid back in the 2000's, I remember watching a commercial with Days Go By from Dirty Vegas playing in the background.

[@cesar_otoniel]

@@devingiles6597 Right, they have done planes, chemicals, cars, electric and automation stuff.

[@STUNT_GRANNY]

I remember a John Scalzi novel had a one-off joke about Quaker Oats somehow taking ownership of the entire internet. No context was ever given.

[@TheHEROFamily]

Idk why but when snapple switched from glass to plastic. It lost some of it's charm and taste. And that classic "CLICK" when you opened a bottle

[@MyAccountIs17YearsOld]

He outlived Aunt Jemima, the Land O Lakes Native American princess and Uncle Ben. You figure it out.

[@Law0086]

Did a presentation on Quaker and its one of the best companies to pick for one of the more interesting diversity of companies acquired over the years.

[@nomore-constipation]

Fun fact oatmeal is considered: Porridge ... and considering your normal reaction is to pour syrup on it (to sweeten it). It kinda makes even more sense they owned the Aunt Jemima brand

[@t918theblade]

For some reason I used to think that the Quaker on the Quaker oats logo was Patchy the Pirate when I was little.

[@Heymrk]

In the 1980s, Quaker owned a video game distributor named US Games. They made 14 games and all of them flopped.

[@mathieuleader8601]

Aunt Jemima always makes me think of the Jemima Witnesses gag in Family Guy's first episode

[@PacesIII]

Jos. A. Banks: Buy one handkerchief and get seven three-piece suits...absolutely free.

[@user-kp9pu1hl8y]

Very informative! thanks for the info, lots of love

[@caitlynmcmunn]

my dad sells his oats to quaker :)

[@20hreiling]

I love their oatmeal!!!! 😋😋😋😋😋😋😋