The History of Bush’s Baked Beans

In 1897, a Chestnut Hill, Tennessee schoolteacher named Andrew Jackson “A.J.” Bush opened a general store and then a cannery with his sons that largely focused on canned tomatoes. During World War I, 85% of the cannery’s products were used for military rations. When the war ended and the Great Depression began, the Bush family began to focus on affordable canned goods like pork and beans, hominy, and sauerkraut. The creation of Douglas Lake meant that much of the family’s farmland was flooded and one of their production plants was lost, but they acquired another one and narrowed their focus further. In 1947, Bush Brothers’ board of directors chose a new identity, Bush’s Best, and began canning beans and hominy exclusively. In 1969, Fred Bush, C.J. Ethier, and A.J.’s grandson, Condon Bush, decided to introduce canned baked beans made using the Bush family recipe and began marketing the new product under the Bush’s Best Original label. Under the leadership of Ethier and Condon Bush, additional varieties of baked beans were added to the lineup. In the 1990s, Condon Bush, C.J. Ethier’s son, Jim, and their Board embarked on an unprecedented marketing campaign centered around Bush’s baked beans — the first of its kind in the bean market. They made Bush’s Best Baked Beans the company’s core product and brought in the advertising firm Cole, Henderson and Drake to create a new ad campaign featuring Jay Bush as the company’s spokesperson. In summer 1995, a series of ads debuted that paired Jay with a talking golden retriever named Duke, who was modeled after Jay Bush’s own dog of the same name. The campaign also focused on the fact that a secret family recipe was used to make the baked beans. Sales skyrocketed in response and Jay and Duke became well-known all across America. (The company even published a children’s book based on the ads called Duke Finds a Home.) Today, Bush’s baked beans are arguably the most well-known option on the market and the company remains family-owned.