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What do advertising agency DDB Canada, Canadian Tire Bank and Kruger SpongeTowels have in common? No, it's not a crafty campaign to clean up the financial crisis. Each brand is using a bubble suit man as their brand icon. See for yourself:
DDB Canada
Canadian Tire Bank
Kruger SpongeTowels
So is this a strange coincidence? Or just advertising influence? We pick influence.
First, DDB Canada created their two fat men. Then, Canadian Tire Bank launched the 'Mortgage' man who gets in your way. Now, Kruger has unveiled a SpongeTowel man who soaks up all your stains. However, they all look strangely familiar to an even earlier brand. Can you guess it?
The Pillsbury Dough boy was created under the supervision of advertising legend Leo Burnett. He pioneered the idea of creating an image to capture a product and the ad principle made Leo Burnett Worldwide one of the most award-winning agencies of all time. His superhero creations saved consumers from mediocre ad campaigns by using the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, Tony the Tiger, and the Pillsbury Dough boy. His creative influence injected animation based icons into mainstream America.
These brand mascots made shopping exhilarating, and served as a visual queue to the products usage. The Jolly Green Giant proved eating vegetables made you big and strong, the Marlboro Man made smoking look cool, Tony the Tiger suggested sugar flakes made kids into champions, and the Pillsbury Dough boy made cooking look simple.
The simplicity of the Pillsbury Dough boy can also be seen in the new bubble suit men. Companies using the icon are trying to represent an image that using their service/product is easy and fun. It may not be a fresh idea, but it's worth poking.
Unlike a fresh bread loaf that rises once, brand icons resurface. Sometimes it takes decades but other times it takes months. Recently, monkey's have been used by too many companies to name. Then evolution introduced the neanderthal to campaigns for Milk and Geico. We even see a Sasquatch being used by Kokanee, Boston Pizza, and Jack Links.
If brands tell a story, then brand icons are the story tellers and the best ones keep coming back. |
