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| Product type | Cooking oil |
|---|---|
| Owner | Richardson International |
| Country | United States |
| Introduced | 1899 |
| Previous owners | Southern Oil Company Beatrice Foods Conagra Foods |
| Website | Wesson Oil |
Wesson cooking oil is an Americanbrand ofvegetable oil manufactured inMemphis, Tennessee, and sold byRichardson International. Historically, Wesson wascottonseed oil, but as of 2009 the products sold under the Wesson brand are oil mixtures that may includecanola oil,corn oil,soybean oil orsunflower oil.
Wesson was originally a trademark of theSouthern Cotton Oil Company, named after David Wesson (1861–1934), a food chemist at the firm who, in 1899 developed a novel process for deodorizing cottonseed oil, producing the first commercial all-vegetableshortenings from cottonseeds. This new product was marketed asSnowdrift. TheSavannah, Georgia, factory was erected in 1911 and torn down in 2004.[citation needed] In the 1920s, the vegetable oil division was spun off as theWesson Oil & Snowdrift Company. In 1960, this firm merged withHunt's Foods, Inc. to becomeHunt-Wesson Foods, which later merged withBeatrice Foods. The brand was sold toConAgra Foods along with many other former Beatrice brands in 1990.[citation needed]
In July 2011, two lawsuits were brought against ConAgra, arguing that it misrepresented Wesson as being "pure and natural" when it usedgenetically modified corn and soy in its oils. They argued that ConAgra "engaged in this misleading and deceptive campaign to charge a premium and take away market share from other similar products".[1][2] In March 2019 a$27 million settlement or damages and reliefs was agreed to,[3] pending a final hearing and approval by the courts set for October 7, 2019.[4][clarification needed]
After an antitrust lawsuit filed by theFederal Trade Commission (FTC) in early March 2018, Conagra Brands Inc. andJ. M. Smucker Co. cancelled a deal for Smucker to purchase the Wesson brand. The FTC claimed that Smucker would have controlled at least 70 percent of the market for branded canola and vegetable oils.[5][6]
On December 18, 2018, Conagra announced that it had reached an agreement to sell Wesson toRichardson International, Limited, Canada’s largest agribusiness operating elevators, crop input facilities, canola processing and oat milling facilities in Canada, the US and Britain.[7]
The Wesson logo was created bySaul Bass in 1964.[8][9]
The longtime spokeswoman for Wesson cooking oil was actressFlorence Henderson, Although she sang the jingle, the word "Wessonality" was actually coined by a copywriter named Mark Itkowitz at BBDO New York in 1976. His initial concept was to use the Lloyd Price version of the song "Personality". It was Jim Jordan, who was BBDO's Creative Director who suggested using the version byJohnny Mercer as the basis for the campaign. Florence Henderson appeared in television commercials for Wesson from 1976 until 1996.[citation needed]
