Ad icons can be human characters, faces, animals or cartoons, meticulously studied and chosen to ensure their contribution in the enhancement of the product’s selling proposition. The human characters in advertising include stereotypes such as the Hattaway Man, the Quaker Oats fellow, Aunt Jemima and Betty Crocker, some of whom were initially modeled after actual personalities.
Locally, we’ve come to love Tita Maggi and her soup noodles, the Electrolux man who arrived knocking at our doors, Lumen who epitomized wa-is housewives in Surf, Billy and Gracia as lead characters in the continuing PLDT IDD saga, and Maxima Labandera, whose toughness paralleled that of Ajax detergent bar.
Putting faces on faceless products was another conventional approach. Mr. Peanut, Mr. Clean, the Michelin Tire Man, the Kool-Aid Pitcher, Johnny Walker – all winked and smiled at prospective customers. Advertising creators put pets together with products. There’s Nipper with RCA; the Nestle’s Quik Bunny, and its competitor, the Bosco Rabbit; and the sad-eyed basset hound that plied Hush Puppies. With the success of the brands they represented, these pets served their masters well.
Cartoon characters can either be tailored-fit for a product or appropriated from elsewhere. An animation studio specifically created Tony the Tiger in Kellogg’s Sugar Frosted Flakes. Hanna-Barbera’s Flintstones, on the other hand, have been taken from their Bedrock universe, and used as spokespeople for their namesake, Flintstones multi-vitamin. Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts gang has pitched for all kinds of things including an insurance company. The pink bunny playing a drum and wearing shades and blue sandals caught people’s attention worldwide as the advertising icon of long-lasting Energizer batteries. This favorite American hare found fame beating his drum endlessly, the battery that powers him has so much strength and energy to give that keeps him going and going, all the way to the hearts and minds of consumers who patronized the Energizer brand.
As Ad Age reported, even McDonald’s advertising executive Roy Bergold couldn’t believe what he witnessed one day in Milwaukee, USA. "Ronald was visiting sick children and he came upon a youngster in coma," recalls Bergold. "I watched as the child’s eyes began to flicker as Ronald stood by his side. The boy actually regained consciousness during his visit. There’s no way to explain how it happened or why, but was nothing short of amazing."
It was in 1963 when a McDonald’s Washington franchisee Oscar Goldstein, in collaboration with his local ad agency, first introduced Ronald to the market. From then on, his name has been attached to a major charitable organization, the Ronald McDonald Foundation. He has starred in films, and danced with the New York City Rockettes. Today, he continues to be the fast food chain’s ambassador of goodwill. Ad Age also reveals that "his face is recognized by nearly 96% of American children, and sells for McDonald’s in more than 25 languages."
"The most powerful – in some quarters, most hated – brand image of the century, the Marlboro man, stands worldwide as the ultimate American cowboy and masculine trademark, helping Marlboro as the best-selling cigarette in the world," Ad Age says.
Today, the mention or sight of the Marlboro Man evokes protest and negativity from healthcare advocates who stand as witnesses to the ills brought by years of cigarette smoking. More than any issue, Ad Age avers, the ethics of tobacco advertising – both morally and legally – have divided the advertising industry. But even those ad professionals who abhor the tobacco industry will, when pressed, agree that the Marlboro Man holds the unprecedented record of success as a global marketing tool.
Against this media scenario, Gardan’s ad agency recommended a back-door approach conveniently avoiding Metro Manila as key staging point for a couple of reasons. First, after many years of absence, there were no clear indications of how the market would respond to a comebacking toothache brand now offering to give more. Second, only a limited budget was available.
Gardan’s repositioning was encapsulated in this statement – "If Gardan could offer fast-acting relief for the most intolerable pain of all – a toothache – then it could undoubtedly defeat milder pains likes headaches and body aches. Gardan was projected as the helpful, hardworking, and fast-acting pain reliever. For recall, the brand name was played up in the campaign theme, "Ang Gardan Angel mo sa sakit ng ulo at katawan" with a guardian angel icon to personify the brand essence. It became a major visual element in the TV commercial and all collateral materials. The radio materials dramatized a kid’s prayer to his Gardan Angel to ease the aches and pains of his parents.
After the initial guerrilla salvo, which some call the grandest countryside market re-launch, Gardan posted favorable sales results and impressive growth rates. After mounting a national campaign last year, it earned a substantial share of the market. To date, Gardan continues to tell its product story with the help of the Gardan Angel.
Advertising characters and symbols can be seen as part of a continuum of fiction and fantasies given life by the restless, fertile human imagination. It is a spiritual image attributed with fantastic exploits and superhuman powers, including the ability to give fast relief or immediate action.
Over the years, invasion of advertising messages and varied characters and symbols has multiplied almost beyond comprehension. Life in the information highway is cluttered with sensory stimuli of all kinds, and advertising is most pervasive in demanding for attention. We try our best to zap it, screen it out, scoff at it, curse it, cry or smile with it. But advertising is infringing, and its characters – real or unreal, live or animated – penetrate our consciousness, invited or not.