Creation and early development Although often misattributed to Canada, the mascot concept originated in the United States. Until the early 1970s, the A&W's primary mascot in the United States and Canada was the Burger Family. A prototype of what later became The Great Root Bear appeared in kids' meal bags at the American chain in the early 1970s, similar to the later design. Bears were already popular then, with examples including
Baloo from
Disney's then-recent adaptation of
The Jungle Book, Disney's acquisition of the licensing rights to
Winnie-the-Pooh and the success of the
Hanna-Barbera character
Yogi Bear. In 1971, an A&W franchise in
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, used a completely different costume for a character tentatively named "Root Bear"; in late April that year, the character awoke from hibernation and washed customers' car windows. Another proposed influence was Rooti, a panda-like bear for
Canada Dry's root beer in the 1960s. By the early 1970s, A&W was losing ground to
McDonald's and
KFC in both the United States and Canada. The Canadian operations were sold to
Unilever in an attempt to keep the chain afloat.
International adoption location in 1988 Before long, The Great Root Bear was adopted by the American A&W chain, and its restaurants in Asia. In the United States, the previous A&W mascots, the Burger Family, were phased out beginning in 1973. Although, according to A&W, Rooty was "born" on June 19, 1974, earlier press materials given to franchisees claim that he was "born" in September 1973. The costume, with an animated-style appearance, was designed by the same company that made costumes for
Disneyland. The design cost $25,000 (). The Great Root Bear soon began making public appearances, including television performances, visits to hospitals and schools, and events at the chain's restaurants, especially starting in the summer season of 1974. He also took part in activities related to the
Easterseals Telethon in 1976 and 1977. Restaurants handed out Great Root Bear-branded Hocus-Pocus Magic Kits during the campaign. By 1976, the mascot had become successful, and merchandise such as straws featuring the bear was available. A hand puppet of the bear was introduced in during the 1977 Christmas season. In 1978, the company's newsletter, the
A&W News Dispenser, was renamed
A&W News Bearer. At birthday parties hosted at its restaurants, balloons were called "bearloons" and straws "bearstraws". Beginning in 1975, A&W printed coupons known as "The Great Root Bear Buck" (now "Bear Bucks"), modeled after U.S. dollar notes with Rooty's face in the center. Until 2012, the mascot had no official given name. In its first year of usage in the United States, a franchisee in
Walla Walla named him "Rudy" in a newspaper advertisement for take-home gallons of root beer, a name similar to the current Rooty. The bear also lent his name to a playground at restaurants in Malaysia starting in 1990, Bearland. By early 2004, the Bearland playground had lost most of its attractions.
In Canada The Great Root Bear, with a distinct design, continued to appear in television commercials for the separate Canadian chain. The Canadian chain registered its own trademark for the mascot in 1978, and on September 11, 1995, for his French name, Grand Ours A&W. The bear and the tuba jingle that accompanied him became a long-running campaign, created by Griffiths-Gibson of
Vancouver (the tune, entitled "Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum", was released as a single in April 1977 by
Attic Records, credited to "Major Ursus," a play on
Ursa Major, or "great bear"). Composer and B.C. Hall of Fame inductee Miles Ramsay helped compose the song. The jingle was performed by Vancouver jazz, classical, and session trombonist Sharman King and was often accompanied by the slogan "Follow the Great Root Bear to A&W". During 1997 and 1998,
Drew Carey served as a spokesperson for the chain, appearing in TV ads alongside the bear; he was dismissed (with legal action ensuing) after a November 1998
episode of
The Drew Carey Show featured Carey eating at a McDonald's location in
China. Following the reintroduction of The Burger Family, the bear was phased out from advertising. Only in 2025 did A&W Canada started calling him officially as Rooty, in line with his 50th anniversary. A special birthday party was held at locations in Toronto and Calgary on October 18.
Decline and rebound In 2000, A&W donated 30 teddy bear versions of its mascot to the Bears on Patrol children's safety program in
Oakland County, Michigan. In 2009, as the bear was being downplayed nationally, the
Lodi restaurant (owned by Peter Knight) registered the @awrestaurants
Twitter username, which the national chain adopted within a couple of years. Some posts in spring 2009 were written in the bear's voice (then unnamed). The mascot also appeared at the opening of a new restaurant in
Garden City, Kansas, in early 2009. A new administration took over A&W in the United States in 2011. Liz Bazner described it as "criminal" that the chain was not using the mascot and put him in charge of the Twitter account. A bronze statue of the bear holding a mug was erected in the lobby of the new headquarters in Lexington. In March 2012, A&W released a video showing the bear working at the building during construction, with comedic mishaps. Around this time, the name Rooty appeared and became official. In June 2012 (the de facto 93rd anniversary of A&W), Lexington media house uHAPS Media produced a faux news item depicting Rooty emerging from hibernation. The earliest known use of Rooty as the mascot's name, previously just the Great Root Bear, was a Facebook post on January 30, 2012, in which A&W jokingly signed him up for
Skype. The resurgence formed part of a broader relaunch under the new owners. Liz Bazner, who was in charge of the tweets, created a running joke that Rooty had been "hibernating" before 2012. In January 2013, A&W launched a new website following a new creative marketing agreement with Cornett Integrated Marketing. Executives worked with franchisees in Asia, where the mascot remained prominent, to incorporate him into birthday parties at U.S. restaurants. Rooty also received a
Vine account and a
smartphone app, "Burping Rooty". A&W's website featured a "bear cam" that "streamed" Rooty's daily activities. Rooty also featured in the first product release on
Vine. In 2013-2014, four episodes of a fictional
reality series involving Rooty,
The Bear is Back, were released on A&W's YouTube channel, filmed at the company's headquarters. A
CGI version of Rooty was created in 2022 with the aim of being easily rigged for animation and motion capture. ==Personality and role at A&W==