Britain: Alas, Poor Betty

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As its culinary ambassador to Britain, General Mills in 1959 dispatched none other than Betty Crocker, the label that has become the U.S. housewife's familiar kitchen companion. Armed with a portfolio of 17 "complete" baking mixes with which to win British housewives to the idea of ready-mix, Betty acted with admirable diplomacy. She altered some formulas slightly to please the British palate, created two new ones especially for English teatime, even scaled down the ingredients in the mix to fit the smaller cake tins used by British housewives. To back Betty up, General Mills spent nearly $1,000.000 on an advertising campaign to push layer cake, Boston cream pie, brownies and honey-spice cake. But no luck. Betty has been called home in disgrace, and last week General Mills was closing down its operations in Britain.

"It was a calculated risk that failed," says Lawrence Morey, the last British director of General Mills Ltd. General Mills, explained the Financial Times of London, had been "generally defeated by traditionalism." To begin with, Betty Crocker's products sold for more than established competitors (up to 36¢ v. 25¢) in a market that has not grown since General Mills entered it. But the real trouble was that British housewives considered the use of Betty's complete mixes a slight of their housewifely duties, felt guilty about not even cracking an egg. They also clung to the dark suspicion that the dried eggs and milk in the mixes were just not as good as the fresh items. They passed up the fancy mixes in favor of either baking their own full-fledged homemade cakes or buying readymade cakes, half of which are the dry, traditional and oh-so-British spongecakes. General Mills might have guessed that Betty would not be welcome. After a brief, bitter fling at the British breakfast-food market in 1961, it gave up on packaged cereals.