Quaker Oats

Quick: what does the Quaker Oats cereal have to do with the religious Christian denomination The Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers? Turns out ... nothing - only clever advertising.
In 1877, Henry D. Seymour and William Heston founded a mill in Ravenna, Ohio, and named it the Quaker Mill. There are conflicting stories as to how the name came to be. One legend has it that Seymour chose the name after reading an encyclopedia entry on the Quakers:

"The name was chosen when Quaker Mill partner Henry Seymour found an encyclopedia article on Quakers and decided that the qualities described — integrity, honesty, purity — provided an appropriate identity for his company's oat product." (Source)

Another story said that Heston was walking on the streets of Cincinnati when he ran across a picture of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania and a famous Quaker (Source). In whichever case, later that year the company trademarked the Quaker Man, described as "The figure of a man in Quaker garb." It was the first US trademark ever registered for a breakfast cereal.

The original 1877 Quaker Man was a full-length picture of a Quaker holding a scroll with the word "pure" on it (just in case the integrity/honesty/purity point didn't get across). In 1946, graphic designer Jim Nash created a black and white head portrait of the smiling Quaker Man and in 1957, Haddon Sundblom made the full-color portrait. The last update to the logo was in 1972, when Saul Bass created the stylized graphic that still appears on Quaker Oats product packages today.