How The Pringles Man Got His Name

Pictured above are a bunch of cans of Pringles, the not-a-chips (you’ll see) that you’re almost certainly familiar with. (Admittedly, I’ve never heard of Prawn Cocktail flavored ones before writing this — they, unlike me, are British.) Across the top of each can, above the “Pringles” wordmark, is a man with floating eyebrows and a very pronounced mustache. His name is Julius Pringles.

But it shouldn’t be.

The name “Julius Pringles” has a good sound to it — it’s distinguished, maybe even Victorian. It’s the kind of name you’d expect from a man whose entire personality is “arched eyebrows and a bow tie,” or at least, a name you’d believe that a high-priced marketing firm could develop for such a character. But as of 2005, that wasn’t his name. If the man atop the can had a name at all, it was “Mr. P,” which, uh, isn’t very classy at all. But the next year, that changed.

It started as a joke.

In December 2006, two college kids, Justin Shillock and Michael Wiseman, were sitting in their dorm room watching a football game and eating some Sour Cream & Onion Pringles. That’s when, per Input Magazine, Justin asked a seemingly innocuous question — he wanted to know what Michael thought the Pringles guy’s name was. Not having a clue, Michael noted that one of the football players on the screen was named Julius Peppers, so he simply replied “Julius Pringles.”

Justin decided to take the remark one step further. A long-time Wikipedia editor, he added this “fact” to the Pringles entry in the online encyclopedia. There’s no citation, but it didn’t matter — the tidbit stuck around on that Wikipedia page for a few months. In the interim, per the Guardian, the pair “made a Facebook group – ‘Who knew he was named Julius Pringles?’ – to help embed the claim further.” And that combination gave just enough credibility to the “Julius” name that it stuck.

Fast forward to 2013. Procter & Gamble, which founded the Pringles brand decades earlier, sold it to Kellogg’s. And Kellogg’s marketing team nearly immediately began referring to the Pringles man as “Julius.” And in their fiscal year 2021 report (pdf), they made it official, stating that “our trademarks also include logos and depictions of certain animated characters in conjunction with our products, including […] Mr. P or Julius Pringles for Pringles crisps.”

And with that, the joke became reality. The man with the mustache, now and forever, is officially Julius Pringles.