I'm a Dilly

Illustration of smiling anthropomorphic "dilly bar" style ice cream wearing cowboy hat, neckerchief, gloves, spurred boots, and chaps holding a glowing "D" shaped branding iron.  Red text on a white background.

Dairy Queen's cowboy-themed "Dilly Bar" character, complete with a "D" branding iron, graced the ice cream bar’s paper wrappers throughout the latter part of the 1950s. The franchise's famous "Dilly Bar" is a circular soft-serve ice cream treat on a stick, coated in either chocolate or butterscotch, and topped with the trademark Dairy Queen swirl. The bar's creator, Robert Litherland, was the co-owner of a Dairy Queen store in Moorehead, Minnesota, when he introduced it to headquarters in 1955, making it an instant staple for the franchise. While demonstrating the technique of how one was made, the demonstrator held up the completed ice cream treat and pronounced, “Now isn’t that a dilly!” and the name was born, although never copyrighted.