Mountain Dew Has Hillbilly Roots
Moonshine isn’t the only beverage with hillbilly roots. It’s no coincidence that Mountain Dew’s mascot was a hillbilly. Brothers Barney and Ally Hartman, inventors of Mountain Dew, originally meant it to be a whiskey chaser when they introduced it in 1932. When the brothers moved to Knoxville, Tennessee, they found out they couldn’t get their favorite whiskey mixer locally. They created a replica. When it started selling locally, the lemon-lime concoction was named ‘Mountain Dew,’ a slang for the moonshine produced in the nearby Tennessee mountains. Stores weren’t interested in mixers, but the soda, after the addition of lemonade to the Hartman’s formula, attracted PespiCo in 1964. In 1966, at the height of the hillbilly revolution in popular culture, mascot Willy the Hillbilly graced the scene, linking the brand to hillbilly culture. He enticed people to drink the soda, with a tagline promise, “It’ll tickle your innards.”