Monday motivation: It's Free Cone Day at DQ
Worker productivity is about to take an afternoon dive. Twin Cities weather is expected to top 60 degrees — and Dairy Queen is offering customers a free, small vanilla cone today at participating stores.
The Edina-based soft serve giant has declared it Free Cone Day to celebrate its 75th anniversary.
Only one per person, so don't try to sneak back in line.
The company's also accepting donations for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.
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The first Dairy Queen opened in Joliet, Ill. in 1940 when founders J.F. and Alex McCullough seized on the popularity of soft-serve ice cream.
The headquarters moved to the Twin Cities in 1962. Susan Mundale, who edited a company history book, says around that time Minneapolis ad man Ray Mithun helped build the national brand, in part by putting the product in the hands of a popular TV talk show host.
"Mike Douglas put on a regular Dairy Queen outfit and a hat. And Rosemary Clooney was part of this too, and they tried their hand at creating this cone with the curl on top," Mundale said.
Mithun also helped develop the look of Dairy Queen, according to Mundale.
"He said we needed to create an atmosphere, a whole gestalt -- how Dairy Queen people act and how they dress and the hat they wear, the signage, the color of the paint. So he created that image that developed from consistency over the whole system."
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought Dairy Queen in 1998.