Skippy takes the heat as poster product for 'package shrink'

In the words of Run-DMC, George Washington Carver "made the peanut great." But Unilever is using up that goodwill, as its Skippy peanut butter is quickly becoming shorthand for "package shrink."
  In November, the Los Angeles Times singled out Skippy for putting a dimple at the bottom of its jar to save about 2 ounces of peanut butter. Then, this week, National Public Radio's Marketplace dubbed Skippy "the poster product for this phenomenon," even though it noted that Dial soap and Kellogg's Froot Loops do similar things.
  It's a tough break for Skippy, but perhaps it's payback for past wrongs, as famously outlined by Saturday Night Live's Shabazz K. Morton (aka Eddie Murphy). Morton charged that Edward "Skippy" Williamson and Frederick "Jif" Armstrong stole Carver's peanut-butter recipe, copyrighted it and "reaped untold fortunes from it. While Dr. Carver died penniless and insane, still trying to play a phonograph record with a peanut."

—Posted by Todd Wasserman