What is The Mandela Effect?

The Origin of the Mandela Effect

Can the past change? It sounds incredible, but scientists are debating exactly this, with various theories ranging from quantum mechanics to the many-worlds interpretation. If it could, how would it appear to us? The internet is buzzing with wild ideas, so it's time to go over where they originated, and consider in detail what exactly might be causing it.

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Historical Events  Brands

Did the Fruit of the Loom logo have a cornucopia?

HE-1851-0110

A: 67.70%Affected: 67.70%
269543
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Fruit of the Loom

MMDE: Logo has a cornucopia

Current: Logo has no cornucopia

Missing the horn of plenty

Few people realise the famous "Fruit of the Loom" brand was established in 1851. Many are very familiar with it having worn their underwear at some point in their lives, but what exactly is on the logo?

If you remember a cornucopia - a horn with lots of colorful fruit pouring out of it - you may be experiencing an MMDE, because the logo today doesn't show one. 

There are many references to both versions on the internet. It seems to be an easy one to get those who have never heard of the Mandela Effect with, and are of a certain age, such as parents, who would certainly be familiar with the brand.

Easy to photoshop

There's a popular image floating around the internet of the logo with the cornucopia, supposedly exactly how people remember. In fact it's been used right here to illustrate the story for some time, and even been occasionally picked up by search engines for users searching "Fruit of the Loom". As an excercise, a test was done to see how convincingly it could be faked, and after 10 minutes of searching clip art and photoshopping came up with the answer:fruit of the loom components 300x300

More references

The Frank Wess 1973 album titled "Flute Of The Loom" is an obvious play on words with the title. However, the image on the front on the album is what 's freaking people out more - an exact representation of the cornucopia which never existed. An intrepid Redditer tracked down the artist who created this and interviewed him. The results are fascinating:

This is Reed, Ellis's son, responding for my dad here. I remember the cornucopia specifically, as does my dad. This is the second time we've been contacted about this album cover and Ellis (and I) are more than happy to answer any questions you have about it. I was a little kid when Ellis painted the Flute of the Loom cover and I remember specifically this album being a reference to the cornucopia in Fruit of the Loom's original logo, which is where my dad says he specifically got the inspiration for the design (when I talked to him about it he said, "Why the hell else would I have used a cornucopia?"). The food coming out of the flute is soul food, actually, a ham hock, cabbage, black-eyed peas, etc. I remember when (in my mind) Fruit of the Loom quit using a cornucopia in their logo and switched to just using fruit by itself. It impressed me because I thought the logo looked better with a cornucopia in it. In my memories this was roughly around 1978 when I was in second grade. So, anyway, feel free to ask away.

Here's the album cover clearly showing the cornicopia:

flute of the loom 300x300

Many peoples first Mandela Effect

This is often quoted as how many people first encounter the Mandela Effect, since they are certain they remember the "horn" with the fruit pouring out of it, and are genuinely shocked to learn there never was one.

People also use it as a way to "catch" sceptics, who claim its all hazy memories until asked about the cornucopia. Try it out the next time you meet one!

Newspaper residue

"Florida Today" October 14th, 1994 had this interview with a former Fruit of the Loom employee:

fruit of the loop newspaper 600x1950

Even the company isn't sure!

There was a trademark application, filed in 1973, which includes the word "cornucopia" but not the image. The trademark application status is "cancelled".

Under Design Searches it says:

050901, 050902, 050905, 050914 - Berries. Grapes (alone or in bunches). Apples. Baskets, bowls, and other containers of fruits, including cornucopia (horn of plenty).

Here is the official history of the fruit of the loom logo from 1893 to the present day - notice there is no cornucopia:

fruit of the loop newspaper 600x1950

Following all this confusion, a Twitter user reached out directly to the company and asked the question. Their response didn't really help much!

fruit of the loom twitter 700x726

Ant bully

Were the animators of The Ant Bully aware of the controversy? There is a scene where the fruit with the cornucipa appears, but some have argued this is intentional for a different reason: copyright. If they were to use the actual one, problems could arise so they added the horn to make it familiar but different enough not to cause legal issues:

Counterfeit

There are so many theories regarding what could have happened in the past to cause this. One goes that the clothes line was so popular that it attracted the attention of the counterfeiters who changed the logo. Unfortunately the quality of these items was so poor, and it happened so long ago, that they all perished.

Parodies

Poundlandbandit, a popular Instagram meme user, posted a meme where he was aparrently completely unaware he'd used the wrong logo:

fruit of the loop newspaper 600x1950

More newspaper residue

Check out this newspaper article from 28 Jun 1973 - it makes it clear the author thinks there's a cornucopia in the logo:

fruit of the loop newspaper 580x338


Stamped into the cloth

Either someone with excellent forging abilities or someone who genuinely kept hold of an old T-Shirt posted this on 4chan:

fotl stamp 320x568

Written Cornucopia reference from 1997

There is a very interesting entry in "Signs of the zodiac : a reference guide to historical, mythological, and cultural associations" by Mary Ellen Snodgrass, 1997, page 187. This reads:

The symbol appears on a wide variety of common items, including dried fruit, Italian bread, and Fruit of the Loom underwear. Animated advertisements for briefs and T-shirts feature brightly colored fruits dancing out of a cornucopia to upbeat music.

 

fruit of the loop newspaper 600x1950