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Charlie the tuna earned a new catchphrase. Spam spawned Sir Can-A-Lot. M&M's Ms. Brown runs her own Pandora channel. And Captain Morgan made his TV debut.
Brand mascots are rebounding as marketers redeploy old characters in new ways, create fresh ones from scratch and use digital media to spin out rich storylines not possible in the past, when critters and cartoon characters were pretty much confined to TV.
While it might be too early to declare a full-fledged mascot revival, brand characters are undoubtedly regaining attention.
Mascots are "the gift that keeps on giving," said Carol Phillips, president of consulting group Brand Amplitude. "They never get in trouble with the law. They don't up their fees. You can use them for a long, long time."
Many have been around for what seems like forever. Aunt Jemima and the Michelin Man both date back to the 1890s. Characters picked up steam in the early days of TV advertising, the 1950s and '60s, when Leo Burnett launched classics such as Tony the Tiger and the Pillsbury Doughboy. But character development suffered as marketers gravitated toward shorter commercials, according to Ms. Phillips, a former Leo Burnett staffer who worked on Charlie the Tuna.
Today, social media is giving marketers a whole new playground to test and nurture mascots. "I think the web is going to [bring] a heyday for creating new characters and stories," Ms. Phillips said.
It's on the way there. Consider Kraft Foods, which recently gave us a character...