_Editorial

By Heather Taylor Throughout the 1970s, Hostess established a series of personalities for their iconic baked goods — Twinkie the Kid, Captain Cupcake, King Ding Dong, and Happy Ho Ho. And that’s not even the full list of characters! Designed by animator Don Duga, famous for creating Frosty the Snowman and Mr. Magoo, there were no other mascots on the…

By Heather Taylor The Qantas Koala may be the only spokesanimal to badmouth the brand he represented and get away with it. But, in the icon’s defense, he had a really good reason for expressing so much disdain towards the popular Australian airline, Qantas. Tourists traveled to the land down under not to sight see at famous locales like the…

By Heather Taylor Most gnomes tend to spend their days hanging out in a garden or backyard. Not the Roaming Gnome! As the brand mascot for online travel agency Travelocity, the Roaming Gnome loves nothing better than travelling the world. He’s been spotted sightseeing domestically throughout the United States and internationally, hitting up hot locales like Jamaica and Santorini. He…

By Heather Taylor This February, experts in the advertising space joined us for a roundtable discussion on how brands and agencies can better redefine female representation in brand mascots. It’s always refreshing to see brands step up to the plate and address these issues, and Otter Pops is leading the pack forward. The freezer pop staple has created new members…

By Heather Taylor When you think of La Choy, the brand of canned American Chinese foods, does a fire-breathing dragon come to mind? If it doesn’t, you might have forgotten about Delbert the Dragon who served as the brief but memorable puppet mascot in the 1960s. According to Diana Kuan, author of The Chinese Takeout Cookbook: Quick and Easy Dishes…

By Heather Taylor Most tourists head to New York City to visit the Statue of Liberty in her emerald splendor. Now, they’ll get to snap selfies with another green icon taking over Times Square. Iconic vegetable brand Green Giant, and its beloved harvest mascot, made his larger than life debut in billboard ads at the north end of Times Square…

By Heather Taylor It was the battle of the breakfast bowls in 1965. Quisp, a zany pink alien, had met his match in Quake, a miner-themed superhero. While the two were technically sister brands from the Quaker Oats Company, only one would win the hearts and stomachs of kids — and as cereal history can already tell you it was…

By Heather Taylor Do you remember when the Pillsbury Doughboy used to appear on TV playing a trumpet or electric guitar? How about his brief stint in hip-hop or when he shimmied to the cornbread twist? The late 1980s to early 1990s saw a significant change in the Doughboy’s commercial spots created at ad agency Leo Burnett. Poppin’ Fresh, who…

By Heather Taylor This summer, 7UP enthusiasts in India will be heading “Back to Cool” with the soft drink’s new campaign made specifically with nostalgia in mind. Ad agency Coup Creative will be heading the ultimate throwback by bringing back six old school designs and featuring them on 7UP packaging, including ‘90s fan favorite Fido Dido. Before the laidback icon…

By Heather Taylor Robert Skollar on Being Best Friends With One of Advertising’s Biggest Icons Robert Skollar doesn’t mind admitting that he wasn’t a Kool-Aid fan as a kid. “My family never had it in our house.” He admits, “I only had it at summer camp. I was aware of the brand, and their mascot, but we traveled in different…

By Heather Taylor Eleven years before Pharrell Williams was spotted at the Grammy Awards in a fedora that bore a striking resemblance to the hat featured in the Arby’s logo, the fast food chain was turning heads for their latest advertising campaign. Arby’s introduced an animated character on March 2, 2003 named Oven Mitt to become the new spokes…mitt for…

Do you remember Bert and Harry Piel? In the 1950s, the popular icons were spokescharacters for Piels Beer and given a fictional backstory as the brewery’s animated owners. Ed Graham created that backstory, as well as the mascots, for the Piels campaign while he was a copywriter at Young & Rubicam (now known as Y&R). Decades after their first introduction…

By Heather Taylor 1998 saw the introduction of a new action hero in the brand mascot world. He stood at 14-inches high and had the backbone the size of Missouri. He was Buddy Lee in Buddy Lee: Man of Action, the latest ad campaign for Lee Dungarees from Lee Jeans. This wasn’t the first time audiences had been introduced to…

For years, we’ve pondered just how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop. Only Mr. Owl, the wise character representing Tootsie Pop, seemed to have the answer. Three licks. That’s it! Savvy Tootsie Pop enthusiasts certainly know better and have spent decades trying to crack the sweet, secret formula to this chocolate…

The last time we saw the Energizer Bunny, he was bigger, better, and bunnier than ever. Now EB’s heading into business as the newly appointed Celebrity Creative Director representing the PEEPS brand — and working alongside its own iconic Pink PEEPS Bunny — just in time for the 2018 Easter season. The Pink Bunny, who serves as the Director of…

By Heather Taylor Before Chester Cheetah proclaimed his favorite orange dusted, cornmeal snacks to be “dangerously cheesy,” another character represented the Cheetos brand. He was the Chee-tos Mouse, and he loved the “cheese that goes crunch.” That’s not a typo in his name either. Before 1998, the Cheetos brand was stylized as “Chee-tos” with a dash for historical accuracy. The…

By Heather Taylor If you grew up with Hasbro’s Play-Doh, chances are you probably remember the little guy clad in the red beret on the packaging. His name was Play-Doh Pete and he was one of the brand mascots for the famous modeling compound. Where has Pete disappeared to and who are these other characters I’m talking about? Get your…

Happy National Ravioli Day! It’s a big day for Chef Boyardee and we’re celebrating with a look back at how this brand, and its real-life chef who serves as its famous face, transformed delicious pasta dishes for kids and adults. Hector Boiardi was born in Piacenza, Italy in 1897. In the above commercial spot, Hector is depicted as a curious…

By Heather Taylor Part dog, part panda, 100% wise guy. Fans of Fox’s Biscuits may recall that in 2008 the brand debuted a TV advert campaign directed by Garth Jennings starring a mascot named Vinnie. A cross between a dog and panda, the creatives at Mother London dreamed up Vinnie to have the personality of an old-school Italian gangster with…

By Heather Taylor Travel adverts have long featured individuals fed up with overly stressed or stifling dull routines that make the decision to escape by spontaneously booking a vacation. At TUI UK, formerly Thomson Holidays, it’s Miles the Bear who gets the vacation that’s all he ever wanted in the company’s 2014 TV advert campaign. Advertising agency BMB helped bring…