Why Does A BEAR Need A Sweater??

I had no idea he even had a name. A&Ws are found in even the smaller Canadian towns so we all know where to get the very best burgers and root beer. I remember when they sold it by the JUG. I still go inside to eat my food because they give you your root beer in a frosty glass mug. I especially loved to zip to the end of town during high school for burgers at lunch because it was a drive-thru and the girls wore roller skates. I love the way they hooked the tray onto the window. Everything about that was cool and nostalgic. Nothing better than a Motza burger and onion rings.

If a frosty mug of root beer was your ultimate treat as a kid, you join a long tradition of clanking frosty mugs full of A&W Root Beer. The company's restaurant chains have been around since 1919 - more than 30 years longer than Mickey Ds - and in 1963, they decided it was about time to introduce some mascots, so they went ahead and trotted out a whole family of them. They were known as the Burger Family, including Papa Burger, Mama Burger, Teen Burger and Baby Burger.

Until the mid-'70s, these were the characters that kids associated with the restaurant, but in 1974, that changed when a Canadian A&W franchise brought out a new face for the brand in a bear called Rooty. The company immediately rushed to bring the character to kids in the U.S., where the love of Yogi Bear would surely extend to their cartoon bear lookalike (who was more into root beer floats than picnic baskets). There was only one problem: A market field test was returned showing Rooty was not popular with the clientele at A&W. His reaction was so poor, it almost got Rooty the ax.

https://www.metv.com/stories/the-rarely-told-story-of-a-w-mascot-rooty-the-root-bear?fbclid=IwAR0OEtUJBlCMoOJwUQ8akO_VpYDADxrnwF3V-GOrCT0hgJY77v2KfOxVOi0