“It’s one of the pride and joys of the University and one of its most famous and successful developments.”
So said Vanessa Currie, a research technician in U of G’s Department of Plant Agriculture, while speaking with CBC Kitchener about the beloved Yukon Gold potato.
The humble potato got a big shout-out this week in a new TV and online ad for Skip The Dishes, a Winnipeg-based food delivery service. The ad features actor Jon Hamm, who is shown happily eating Yukon Gold fries and correcting his fictional assistant who mistakenly assumes that the potato was developed in Yukon.
Hamm tells him with a laugh: “Everyone knows these were invented in Guelph.”
The Yukon Gold was indeed developed by U of G potato researcher Gary Johnston in 1966. As Currie noted, Johnston helped make the potato the first variety in Canada to be marketed by its name.
Several other media outlets took notice of the new ads as well, including the Huffington Post and Guelph Today