How Bob Moore, of Bob's Red Mill, made the supermarket famous
Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods was founded in 1978, but it wasn't until several years later that the company discovered something that made its oats, grits and other natural food products so instantly recognizable on grocery store shelves. That's when the likeness of Bob Moore, the company's founder of the same name, appeared on the packaging.
With his white beard, wire-rimmed glasses, newspaper hat and bolo tie, Mr. Moore, who died last week at 94, was an unlikely style icon whose folksiness seemed to personify the healthy, artisanal grains produced by his company in an old mill were produced. in Milwaukee, Oregon.
Mr. Moore may not have been a movie star like Paul Newman, whose face similarly adorns Newman's Own foods, but he became just as recognizable to anyone who has pushed a shopping cart down the grains and nuts aisle.
An illustration of Mr Moore appears on the packaging of each of his brand's more than 400 products, from shelled millet to yellow popcorn, alongside the slogan 'To Your Good Health'. The text on Bob's Red Mill bags and boxes, rendered in homely fonts that may have been used to sell tinctures in the Old West, contains bits of found poetry (“golden spurtle”) and understated hucksterism (“good source of fiber”) . The distinctive but not flashy branding, a piece of modern Americana that falls somewhere between hippie and Norman Rockwell, provides an oasis of calm in busy supermarkets.
According to company lore, Mr. Moore only agreed to be the face of Bob's Red Mill after a friend suggested he should use his image on the packaging. Unlike the Quaker Oats man, Mr. Moore had the virtue of being a real person. He came to believe that his photo communicated to shoppers that he was behind the grains, beans, seeds, powders and flour in the bags.
The original advertising image – a line drawing created in the 1980s – depicted Mr Moore in a white apron and a tie ribbon. During this period, Mr Moore, then in his fifties, looked tall and strong, with slicked back hair and a fuller beard. He might have owned a store in a one-horse town. Later, a more grandfatherly Mr. Moore appears wearing his trademark cap, which he began wearing for practical reasons.
“His doctor wanted him to protect his head from the sun,” said Cassidy Stockton, spokeswoman for Bob's Red Mill. “I don't know how he came up with that style, but I've never seen him with any other type of cap. He had them in different colors. The signature version on the packaging – the baby blue one – is the one he is most known for and his favorite.”
That shade was a departure for Mr. Moore, who loved the color red. For photo shoots and promotional events he usually wore a red vest or jacket. He dressed similarly when he traveled for work, making him easily recognizable in airports and hotel lobbies.
The red vest was not custom-made but ordered from a uniform catalog, Ms. Stockton said, and Mr. Moore required the factory workers in his employ to wear a red work jacket. As he walked across the floor in his red vest, he stood out as the man in charge.
“It was a bit like Mr. Rogers,” Ms. Stockton said, referring to Fred Rogers, the children's television host. “He came in in the morning in his warm coat, hung it up and put on his red vest. The vest was his hoodie. I'm sure it reassured him that we all have our favorite things.”
As for the ever-present bolo tie, it had a small millstone on it, sourced from the same quarry from which the company sourced its millstones.
It didn't seem like Mr. Moore spent much time on his appearance, but he wasn't oblivious to the role of image either. Janice Dilg, a historian who interviewed Mr. Moore on camera in 2017 for an Oregon State University project, he recalled telling an assistant to make sure he had the signature cap on hand for the day of filming.
“He was aware that he and I were doing something that was going to become public,” said Ms. Dilg, who added that Mr. Moore charmed her before the interview by giving her a tour of the factory on a golf cart.
“He was a very smart businessman who understood how to use that personality,” she said. “Both to sell his product, but on some level also to help people become healthier. He struck me as not being full of himself at all. He was successful. But it was, 'I'm still just Bob.'