Newman's Own

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Newman's Own
Type
Founded 1982
Headquarters
Key people Paul Newman (Founder), A.E. Hotchner (founder)
Products salad dressing, snacks

Newman's Own is a food company founded by actor Paul Newman and his friend, author A. E. Hotchner, in 1982. The company is a for-profit corporation, and Paul Newman receives all of the proceeds.[1] Newman then donates 100% of those proceeds, after taxes, to educational and charitable purposes.[2] The charities, and their nature, to which the proceeds are given remain mostly undisclosed.[citation needed] According to the Newman's Own website, the franchise has resulted in over $220 million in donations as of February 2008. The company co-sponsors the PEN/Newman's Own First Amendment Award, which is presented annually to a United States resident who has fought courageously, despite adversity, to safeguard the First Amendment right to freedom of expression as it applies to the written word.

The brand started with salad dressing, and has expanded to include pasta sauce, iced tea, lemonade, limeade, fruit cocktail juices, popcorn, salsa, cookies, coffee, grape juice, dog food, cat food, and other offerings. Newman's Own Limeade was introduced in 2004. Each label features a picture of Newman, dressed in a different costume to represent the product.

One beneficiary of his charity is the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, a summer camp for seriously ill children he co-founded in 1986, located between Ashford and Eastford, Connecticut. While proceeds from Newman's Own financed the startup of the camp, it now receives funding from many additional sources.

Newman and Hotchner co-wrote a memoir about their company and the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good (ISBN 0-385-50802-6). It was published in 2003.

[edit] References in popular culture

In The Simpsons episode "King-Size Homer," Homer vents gas from a nuclear reactor. The gas destroys crops of corn. A farmer looks and says, "Oh no, the corn! Paul Newman's gonna have ma' legs broke!" This is in reference to the legend on Newman's Own popcorn products, in which Newman threatens anyone who might try to steal his popcorn. [3]

He has also made a cameo in The Simpsons episode "The Blunder Years," as Homer is jealous that Marge likes the Burley brand of paper towels because of the handsome man on the label, he fantasizes about Newman's Own Dressing with the picture of Newman speaking "Homer, I'll tell you what I told Redford: It ain't gonna happen."

[edit] Sources

  1. ^ Newman's Own - FAQs. Newman's Own Inc. Retrieved on Oct 12, 2007.
  2. ^ Newman's Own - Common Good. Newman's Own Inc. Retrieved on May 19, 2007.
  3. ^ Newman's Own White Kernel Popcorn: The Legend. Newman's Own Inc. Retrieved on May 19, 2007.

[edit] External links