We are bombarded with ads for everything from soap to tires on a daily basis. While most of those ads are forgettable or annoying (or usually both), some are actually kind of fun to watch. To me, the most fun ones have a mascot of some type, which is what we’ll look at this time, along with the either memorable or largely unknown names they’re given.
Specifically, I’ll try to answer Shakespeare’s burning question, “What’s in a name?” by looking at some of the more obscure names of many of those mascots, such as Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch, for example.
Staying with breakfast, there’s also Cornelius, the rooster on the Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box, and Larry, whose face is on boxes of Quaker Oats and, who, despite the apparent similarities, is not modeled after William Penn, according to Quaker Foods. Larry has no last name, by the way.
Also not modeled after a real person (thankfully) is the Pillsbury Doughboy, whose name is Poppin’ Fresh, and looks as though he could be related to the Stay-Puft Man and Bib, the Michelin Man.
Bib is short for Bibendum, which comes from “Nunc est bibendum” (“Now is the time to drink”), a line from Horace’s “The Odes” that was chosen because Michelin tires reportedly “drink up the bumps.”
Also somewhat similar in appearance to each other thanks to their top hats are the Monopoly Man, Rich Uncle Pennybags, and The New Yorker’s highbrow mascot Eustace Tilley.
Catalina, Chicken of the Sea’s mermaid mascot, is modeled after a real person, Grace Lee Whitney, who later played Yeoman Janice Rand in the original “Star Trek” TV series.
Ms. Whitney would probably be disappointed to learn that “A mermaid with one tail is just a plain ol’ mermaid,” according to coffee company Starbucks anyway, whose name is taken from the first mate in “Moby-Dick.” The company says the figure in their logo is named Siren because she has two tails.
Not all product mascots work out. Mia, Land O’Lakes fictional indigenous “Butter Maiden,” was recently retired because she was considered by some to be a racial stereotype. And she’s not the first to go: Remember the Frito Bandito?
Voiced by cartoon voice superstar Mel Blanc, the Frito Bandito was a Mexican revolutionary who robbed people of their Fritos at gunpoint. One wonders why it took five years before the character was finally taken off TV in 1971.
Even product mascots based on real people have run into problems recently. In quick succession last year, both Aunt Jemima (who was based on former slave Nancy Green) and Uncle Ben (reportedly based on the likeness of a Texas rice farmer) were removed from the packaging of Quaker and Mars products respectively because they were considered to be racially insensitive.
Among those still around are: Chef Boyardee (after chef Ettore Boiardi), Wendy (the daughter of hamburger chain founder Dave Thomas), Little Debbie (the 4-year-old granddaughter of McKee Foods founder O.D. McKee) and Miss Chiquita (reportedly inspired by the fruit-covered hats of the “Brazilian Bombshell,” singer and actress Carmen Miranda).
Finally, it’s time to tidy up before I go with a little Mr. Clean, who was reportedly modeled after a sailor in Pensacola, Florida. In 1962, four years after the product’s introduction, a contest was held to give him a first name. The winner: Veritably.
Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.”
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