Posted on 01/19/2004 7:53:20 PM PST by chance33_98
Sara Lee drops famous singer Jimmy Dean as spokesman
RICHMOND, Va. -- Country singer Jimmy Dean said Sara Lee has dropped him as spokesman for the sausage company he founded.
The 75-year-old native of Plainview, Texas, said the maker of food, apparel and household products told him he no longer meets the company's marketing needs.
A spokeswoman for Sara Lee said the company chose not to renew Dean's contract in May because the "brand was going in a new direction'' that demanded a shift in marketing.
Dean, who lives just outside of Richmond, Virginia, said he had a verbal agreement with former Chief Executive John Bryan.
Dean said Bryan told him that the entertainer would always be the company's official spokesman.
Bryan couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Sara Lee still pays Dean an undisclosed amount for the use of his name and his likeness.
What can it mean, You are sausage?
. . . . . . Jimmy-Dean Pork Link
After boycotting all the companies that have pissed me off recently, I find I'm forced into subsistence farming.
I have no information regarding the political leanings of John Deere or Internation Harvester. I hope you don't have to till the soil by hand.
More seriously, there is a cultural war raging right now in the US. When I think of the alternatives, I find myself quite willing to make considerable economic sacrifices to win now, when victory may be had with relative safety. Waiting to oppose anti-freedom forces will simply saddle our children with an even more difficult battle.
I have spent hundreds of dollars to store rifles outside Kalifornia rather than register them. I have taken an early retirement from a career of 31 years. I am happy to be retired, but would not have done so except for the climate of oppression here. I will be taking further steps this year to leave the state that has been my home for all of my half-century of life. Convincing my wife of the necessity of this move will be my hardest challenge.
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