The Strolling Of The Bulls

Bestfoods set loose 10 bulls in front of the New York Stock Exchange Monday to pursue stunt men dressed as a Thomas’ English Muffin, a jar of Skippy peanut butter and other brands of the company.

The promotional event marked CPC International Inc.’s name change to Bestfoods by drawing on the symbolism of the bull as an emblem of rising stocks.

Bestfood’s chairman and chief executive, C.R. Shoemate, said he was pleased that the horned animals didn’t skewer the enormous Entenmann’s chocolate chip cookie or the bottle of Mazola corn oil.

Bystanders on Wall Street were concerned, though, that the bulls’ inability to catch up to a giant jar of Hellmann’s mayonnaise was a sign of a slowing bull market. “They’re hardly walking,” said Eric Grabowski. “They’re slow-moving, underdeveloped bulls.”

The bulls, enclosed by a metal rodeo fence, trotted east from a cattle truck on the corner of New and Wall Streets, turned right at the corner of the exchange and moseyed south down Broad Street until reaching another cattle truck. And then they did it again for the television cameras, just to make sure.