Dictionary Definition
butterball
Noun
2 small North American diving duck; males have
bushy head plumage [syn: bufflehead, dipper, Bucephela
albeola]
User Contributed Dictionary
Extensive Definition
Butterball brand of turkey and
other poultry products
produced by Butterball LLC, a joint
venture of Smithfield
Foods and Maxwell
Farms.
The brand has existed for over fifty years and
has been the top-selling brand of turkey in the United
States for over forty years.
The name Butterball was originally registered as
trademark #378,438 on June 11, 1940 by Ada Walker of Wyoming, Ohio.
Leo Peters purchased the trademark in February of 1951. Leo Peters
licensed the name to Swift and Co. for 10 years before selling it
in the 60's. Peters sold the name "Butterball" to Swift and Co.
which was later acquired by ConAgra, but
retained rights to the use of the name for his butter products and
the company he founded which is still in operation today:
Butterball Farms, Inc.
An undercover PETA video
investigation released in July 2006 showed Butterball employees
beating and inhumanely killing turkeys.
In October 2006, ConAgra's Butterball branded
turkey business was sold to North
Carolina based Carolina Turkeys, which renamed itself
Butterball LLC.
Among numerous other brands, English-bred
Butterball turkeys are sold in the United
Kingdom during Christmas time,
for the Christmas
feast.
According to Butterball, the following products
are sold under the Butterball name:
In addition, Butterball Farms sells decoratively
formed butter under the
Butterball name.
Turkey Talk-Line
Beginning in late 1981, Butterball has maintained
a toll-free telephone line called the Turkey Talk-Line to help
customers with various cooking difficulties and questions. Eleven
thousand people called in 1981, and in recent years the number has
grown to over 200,000 each holiday season. Each of the operators
holds a degree in either dietetics or home economics, roughly half
of which are Masters-level. The most frequent question asked is how
long a turkey takes to defrost.
In The West
Wing episode "The Indians in the Lobby", President Josiah
Bartlet calls the number (referred to as the "Butterball
Hotline" in the script) to discuss stuffing and cooking his
Thanksgiving turkey.
References
Notes
- Taylor, Rod - "Backward Glance: Talking Turkey", PROMO Magazine, November 2004
External links
- Butterball, LLC - Turkey Purveyor
- Butterball Farms, Inc. - Butter Purveyor