Dippy Canoes
This can is a good reminder that packaging designs can have gorgeous period typography – here with Ed Benguiat’s lovely Newlock Condensed – and still suck. On his Stranger Finds blog, Tom pointedly describes what’s wrong with it:
From the aisle of misfit groceries comes this racially insensitive can of extruded corn in the shape of canoes, otherwise known as “Dippy Canoes”.
The name is a play on the famous Battle of Tippecanoe in which Indiana Governor (and later, 9th president) William Henry Harrison battled Native Americans who had formed a confederacy to oppose U.S. expansion into Native American territory. The Native Americans lost, of course, and to add insult to injury, 150 years later Quaker Oats would name a snack food after their defeat and feature a stereotypical caricature of one of their own. Harrison only survived 30 days of his presidential term before succumbing to typhoid, so I guess that was some consolation to the Native Americans.
The snack was also sold under the Burry’s brand which became a division of the Quaker Oats Company in 1962. According to Retroland, Dippy Canoes were launched in 1967 and remained in supermarkets at least until the 70s arrived. It was advertised (with more racist stereotypes) in 1968.
Burry’s
