Alright. Let’s kick off with an obvious-ism: Brand Mascots—the Jolly Green Giants and Ronald McDonaldses of the world—aren’t a popular thing in the ad world these days.
With a few conspicuous exceptions (Flo at Progressive Insurance, looking right at you), contemporary ad campaigns rely on celebrity spokespeople… or, better yet, the products themselves.
Cue George Roberts at Transform:
More brands now lean on celebrities as ambassadors, rather than gunning for mascots; there’s no brand-building necessary when you get George Clooney to front Nespresso or Kevin Bacon to assume the face of EE. Why on earth would a brand risk wheeling out a newly designed, unknown mascot when Jack Black or Lady Gaga is knocking at their door?
That’s a good question!
Especially because brand mascots compose such a huge part of our pop culture shorthand and shared collective unconscious, even in an increasingly post-television world.
A few months ago, the New York Times’ Annabelle Williams wrote an obituary of Mu…
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