Quiz: do you know which consumer brands are American?

[Rick]

@Leaper

Well, remember, they’re not asking what products are American - they’re asking what brands are American. That’s two different things.

And I got 50%. Got fooled by Baby Ruth; didn’t know they’d been acquired since Babe Ruth’s time.

OK is this brand American?

Based in San Diego, California, the company markets a variety of other seafood items under the Chicken of the Sea brand name, including clam, crab, mackerel, salmon and sardines. The original company was founded in 1914 when Frank Van Camp and his son bought the California Tuna Canning Company and changed the name to the Van Camp Seafood Company. The phrase Chicken of the Sea, first devised as a way to describe the taste was so successful that soon it also became the company name.

That brand sounds pretty American to me. However,

In 1963, Van Camp Seafood Company was purchased by Ralston Purina. In 1988, Ralston sold its Van Camp division to an Indonesian corporation, P.T. Mantrust, which had financial problems, and the primary creditor, Prudential Life Insurance, became the majority owner. In 1997 the company was purchased by the investment group Tri-Union Seafoods LLC, made up of three partners:

* 1) Thai Union International Inc., a Thai conglomerate based in Bangkok and the then largest tuna packer in Asia and second largest in the world
* 2) Edmund A. Gann, American owner of Caribbean Marine Service, Co., Inc., a tuna-fishing fleet
* 3) Tri-Marine International, Inc., a global trading company formed in Singapore in 1972 dealing in tuna and tuna products headed by Renato Curto, president and majority shareholder.

The new owners changed the name of Van Camp Seafood Company to Chicken of the Sea International. In 2000, Tri-Marine International Inc and Edmund A. Gann sold their 50 percent interest in Chicken of the Sea to Thai Union International, Inc., leaving Thai Union the sole owner of the company. Chicken of the Sea International and Tri-Union International LLC merged into one company, still called Chicken of the Sea International.

With the 2003 acquisition of Empress International, an importer of frozen shrimp and other shellfish, Chicken of the Sea’s total annual sales climbed to $600 million. In 2006, Thai Union formed a new division, Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods, to focus on sales of premium quality fresh and frozen seafood products. This division has grown quickly, helping to further grow Chicken of the Sea’s brand awareness and distribution in the foodservice and retail industries.

What they are looking for is not if the brand is American, or the product is American, but who owns the company. A bit hard to tell from a product name.

[Governor_Quinn]

60%, and, like others, I operated using the principle of “whatever name sounds least obvious/most ethnic is the correct answer”.

[zagloba]

@astorian

By that logic, are Volvo and Jaguar and Mazda “American” cars?

Jaguar is an Indian car, or will be as soon as the deal closes.

[Rick]

@astorian

By that logic, are Volvo and Jaguar and Mazda “American” cars?

Something tells me the authors of that quiz would be outraged if I bought a Volvo and said I was driving an American car.

But since Volvo belongs to the American Ford Motor Corporation, then my Volvo IS an “American” car (even though it was made in Sweden) as as surely as my I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter is an English margarine (even though it was made in the USA).

Want to piss off a Swede? Tell them that Volvo is an American car.

[Omniscient]

This Quiz is flat out wrong about the Contadina question. Contadina was founded in the US and in now a wholly owned subsidiary of Del Monte, another company that is and always has been American. Contadina was owned by Carnation for a stretch, another American company at the time. Carnation was bought by Nestle, a Swiss company, but the Contadina Brand was sold back to US owned Del Monte in '97.

I call shenanigans on this quiz. I wonder how many other questions are just bullshit. Incidentally I’ve never even heard of America’s Choice brand and can’t even find a website for it. Shenanigans!!!

[astorian]

I wouldn’t say “shenanigans.” I DO think some of the answers are outdated, but the real problem is, the whole quiz is based on a silly premise.

I consider myself a patriotic, conservative American. I prefer not to buy goods made in sweatshops or in countries with bad human rights records (though I can’t/don’t/won’t boycott China completely- it just isn’t feasible any more!). Other than that, I have no ethical problem buying “foreign” goods.

And how IS that defined? Is a Toyota built in the USA “foreign” and a Ford built in Mexico “American”? If Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is made in Vermont, is it “foreign” because they’re now a division of English/Dutch conglomerate Unilever? What defines a foreign product- where it’s made or who the corporate ownership is?

In any event, even IF we regard Dannon yogurt as a French product or or Dove soap as an English product, it’s not as if workers in England or France are exploited and oppressed. They’re paid and treated at LEAST as well as American workers. So, where’s the moral issue here?

[astorian]

For that matter, I’d like to ask the quiz authors: do you think a Canadian who eats Kraft dinners or an Italian who drinks a Coke or a Japanese businessman who stays at a Marriottt hotel is a traitor to HIS country?

[astorian]

@Omniscient

This Quiz is flat out wrong about the Contadina question. Contadina was founded in the US and in now a wholly owned subsidiary of Del Monte, another company that is and always has been American. Contadina was owned by Carnation for a stretch, another American company at the time. Carnation was bought by Nestle, a Swiss company, but the Contadina Brand was sold back to US owned Del Monte in '97.

I call shenanigans on this quiz. I wonder how many other questions are just bullshit. Incidentally I’ve never even heard of America’s Choice brand and can’t even find a website for it. Shenanigans!!!

I think “America’s Choice” is a private label for products sold at A & P supermarkets.

[Tapioca_Dextrin]

@Omniscient

I’ve never even heard of America’s Choice brand and can’t even find a website for it.

Apparently, America’s Choice is a generic brand sold in A&P stores. Majority shareholder is a bunch of Germans.

I managed a very average 50% BTW.

[OtakuLoki]

I just now actually read (well, read the first couple of paragraphs) of the article associated with the quiz. The stupid just keeps growing - part of the rationale behind the quiz-maker’s advocacy of buying American is so the consumer can protect her/himself from shoddy or adulterated foreign products.

Like the lead-based paints in Fisher-Price toys from China.

Which is company owned by Mattel, Inc. And as far as I can tell from some quick Googling, Mattel, Inc is an American company, by the standards of this quiz. :smack:

[bump]

@Leaper

Well, remember, they’re not asking what products are American - they’re asking what brands are American. That’s two different things.

Not so much… Bumble Bee tuna is about as American of a brand as you get- founded in Oregon in the 20’s, I believe, and bought in 2005-2007 sometime by a Canadian company.

That’s a cheap question, and the entire point of what I tried to say before.