Technique
Mascots and characters
Ads built around a recurring brand character or mascot that audiences come to recognise and love.
2020s
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2023The First Edible Mascot
Builds a bowl sponsorship around a giant grinning strawberry pastry character, which the winning team then eats on the field.
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Duo the Owl on TikTokDuolingo2021
Duo the Owl on TikTok
The green owl mascot, played by a person in a giant costume, becomes the channel's star and a personality first, ahead of any language lesson.
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2021Lu from Magalu
A virtual sales assistant grows into the brand's spokesperson and a social-media personality, dancing, explaining technology and answering customers as the retailer's human face.
2010s
2000s
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2009Compare the Meerkat ("Simples")
Creates Aleksandr Orlov, a self-important meerkat whose mix-up between his site and the brand's makes the name unforgettable and far cheaper to search for.
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2009ZooZoos
Invents egg-headed ZooZoo characters who return in a new film almost every day of the tournament, building a serial that people look forward to.
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2009Roller Babies
The film revives the babies the brand had last used over a decade earlier, recurring characters that embody its promise to live young.
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2008Baby
The talking baby becomes the brand's recurring character, carrying its advertising for six years.
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2007The Shirato Family (White Family)
The talking dog father and his family recur across the series as recognisable characters, popular enough to cross over with another brand's campaign.
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2007No Money, but Love (Yubari Fusai)
Fronts the campaign with a cartoon married couple who personify the city's new image as a home for happy couples.
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2006Alien Jones (Earth Survey series)
Casts Tommy Lee Jones as a recurring alien who surveys Earth through a new Japanese job each episode, a character premise that keeps renewing itself.
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2006Get a Mac ("Mac vs. PC")
The laid-back Mac and endearing PC return across dozens of spots in the same white void, becoming characters viewers instantly recognise.
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2006The Most Interesting Man in the World
Builds the campaign around a silver-bearded legend in his sixties, a recurring character embodying the opposite of the dullness young drinkers fear.
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2003Boy and Pug (You and I)
The faithful pug becomes the brand's recurring face, standing for unconditional support and fronting the network for years.
1990s
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1999Michael Power
Gives the whole continent one recurring action hero, so famous that he appears in character on billboards, in bars and at events.
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1999Flat Eric (Sta-Prest)
A scruffy yellow puppet nodding along in a beat-up American car becomes a cult character whose unexplained cool rubs off on the trousers.
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1996Mamíferos
The costumed little mammals become a recognisable cast, later collected as plush toys and brought back as teenagers in a sequel.
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1995Frogs
Three swamp frogs croaking one syllable each become recurring brand characters whose only job is to say the name.
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1995Bob ("It's Party Time When Bob Drives")
Bob gives the designated driver a name and a face, a recurring character cast as the hero of the evening rather than the killjoy.
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1995Eat Mor Chikin
The same self-aware renegade cows return for decades, becoming the chain's recognisable brand voice across every medium.
1980s
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Still going. Nothing outlasts the Energizer.Energizer (Eveready)1989
The Energizer Bunny
A drum-beating pink bunny that never stops becomes the living symbol of a battery that keeps on going.
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Smooth character.Camel (R.J. Reynolds Tobacco)1988
Joe Camel ("Smooth Character")
A smirking cartoon camel in sunglasses fronts the brand, proving so recognisable that young children could match him to a cigarette.
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1987Spuds MacKenzie: The Original Party Animal
A bull terrier billed as the Original Party Animal becomes the beer's character, so popular that licensed merchandise spreads far beyond the advertising.
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1986The California Raisins ("I Heard It Through the Grapevine")
Turns dried grapes into clay pop stars with attitude, characters famous enough to release albums of their own.
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1985Vince and Larry, the Crash Test Dummies ("You Could Learn a Lot from a Dummy")
Two talking crash test dummies, cynical Vince and eager Larry, become recurring characters who carry the seat-belt message from spot to spot.
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1981Slip! Slop! Slap! (Sid the Seagull)
A likeable cartoon seagull in board shorts, T-shirt and hat models each step, giving the health message a friendly messenger.
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1980Take a Bite Out of Crime ("McGruff the Crime Dog")
A world-weary cartoon bloodhound in a trench coat fronts every message, giving crime prevention a recognisable face in the mould of Smokey Bear.
1970s
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1978Garoto Bombril (first spot)
A shy young spokesman, presented as the company's own chemist, becomes a recurring character who fronts hundreds of films over decades.
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1977Monks ("Brother Dominic")
The monk becomes a character so fused with the brand that he is revived decades later.
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1974Martians ("For Mash Get Smash")
The metallic Martian family becomes a set of beloved puppets that draw fan mail and fix the brand in memory.
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Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii (Kentucky for Christmas)KFC Japan1974
Kentucky for Christmas
Dresses the Colonel Sanders statues outside stores as Santa, merging the brand's character with the season.
1960s
1950s
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1957Louie the Fly
Personifies the pest as a boastful cartoon gangster fly who fears only the can, so every appearance ends with the product winning.
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1956The PG Tips Chimps
Dressed-up chimpanzees become the brand's recurring cast for decades, building affection for tea through a spectacle only television could deliver.
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1956El Toro de Osborne (The Osborne Bull)
A giant black bull silhouette, with no words, stands in for the brand along the roads until it becomes a recognised emblem in its own right.
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Come to where the flavor is. Come to Marlboro Country.Marlboro (Philip Morris)1955
The Marlboro Man
A recurring cowboy and his mythic Marlboro Country become the brand itself, with no argument about the product needed.
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1953The Hamm's Bear
A clumsy, good-natured cartoon bear tumbling around the North Woods becomes the brand's lovable face.
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The man in the Hathaway shirt.C.F. Hathaway1951
The Man in the Hathaway Shirt
The same patched man recurs for decades until the eyepatch alone identifies the brand without its name.
1940s
1930s
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1936The Wienermobile
Turns the vehicle itself into the brand's mascot, a giant hot dog on wheels that draws crowds and photographs wherever it tours.
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1935The Guinness Toucan ("Just think what Toucan do")
A toucan balancing two pints becomes a lovable brand character, part of a menagerie that makes the stout feel friendly.
1900s
1890s
Mascots and characters: how it works
A brand character, whether an animal, a cartoon, a puppet or an invented spokesperson, gives a company a face, a voice and a personality that can run for decades. Many of advertising's most famous creations are characters rather than slogans.
How to spot it
- The same character returns across many ads.
- The character, not the product, carries the jokes and the story.
- People remember the character's name or catchphrase.
Why it works
A character is a memorable shortcut to the brand and a source of endless new stories. It also turns advertising into something audiences look forward to, from cartoon animals on breakfast tables to talking meerkats and lizards.