Green Giant Statue, Minnesota

The “Jolly Green Giant” was a successful branding and marketing campaign for a southwestern Minnesota vegetable canning company, that was bought by Pillsbury in 1979. There was a Green Giant cannery in the town of Blue Earth, and when the Interstate was built bypassing the town, local merchants supported the fabrication of a 55 foot tall Jolly Green Giant statue, originally intended to be installed at the freeway exit, drawing people into town. However a site could not be acquired, and no support came from the Green Giant company itself. The statue was installed instead at the local fairgrounds, a mile from the interstate, where it remains, long after the cannery changed hands and the Green Giant company moved on.