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Story and photos by Shaye Gulotta, junior public relations major, reprinted from InterCom
What started as a Christmas tree adorned with the Pillsbury Doughboy, M&Ms and Campbell's soups cans is now a wall-length glass display case of hundreds of advertising trade characters in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Professor Bonnie Drewniany collected trade characters long before the journalism school’s move from the Carolina Coliseum to Sumter Street. The Christmas tree in her office with a sign that read, “What do you mean the holidays aren’t commercial?” caught student and faculty attention; they then started to give her more.
At the time, eBay was a new phenomenon; her neighbor introduced her to the site and from there Drewniany began to add to her collection. It now includes holiday-themed characters, such as the M&M pumpkins that students can find on her desk each October.
Hidden among the 17 boxes still in storage is the most expensive character that Drewniany purchased for $500; due to its value, she chooses to keep its identity a secret.
With the school’s move, “it was a matter of what do I do with this stuff,” Drewniany said. “The dean would give tours to parents and high school students during the weekend and would take his master key to open my office door.”
It took almost two years to build the display case shelves. The school patterned the design after Women’s Basketball Head Coach Dawn Staley’s trophy case installation.
Drewniany offers a course that explores the history and role of advertising trade characters, helping students to understand how these icons resonate with consumers. “If you were to see a white dog with a red circle on its eye, you know it’s Target — you don’t even need a logo,” Drewniany said. She described understanding trade characters as, “It’s CliffsNotes about the brand.” Students learn how a trade character can represent the characteristics of the product, such as Rice Krispies’ Snap, Crackle, Pop®.
A trade character can also represent a summary of what the brand is all about. Many have evolved since their introduction. Students are assigned character biographies to explore their history, including things such as changes to clothing and facial features in conjunction with an anniversary or social movement.
Drewniany welcomes alumni to her class to speak about the industry. Alumna Liana Miller, a marketing communications planner at General Mills, spoke to the class on Oct. 26 about Lefty the Hamburger Helper glove and how she developed the “Watch the Stove” Mixtape campaign last year. “We treat trade characters with a lot of love and care because they are so iconic; they bring out feelings of nostalgia for most people, which is why they resonate so well in advertisements,” Miller said.
The Helper hand was proudly added to the collection.
This past Halloween, the Chick-fil-A cow joined the class for an advertising-themed costume party.
The term ad critters and trade characters are used interchangeably, but celebrity endorsements are not included. Not every brand has a character, but some industries rely on them. “It’s not a requirement, but it is like a shortcut to understand brand characteristics,” Drewniany said as she pulled out a Flo Halloween costume from her drawer. Flo, she explained, was created to represent Progressive.
Food and beverage are the most likely industries to use advertising trade characters. Drewniany believes that the industry looks carefully at advertising targeted at children to make sure unhealthy behaviors aren’t promoted. A few cautionary tales that Drewniany shared were about Chester Cheetah for Cheetos and the Anheuser-Busch Budweiser Frogs. Chester Cheetah now targets an adult audience to avoid advertising junk food to young kids; however, Drewniany shared that Cheetos Oven Baked chips can be seen in children’s commercials or television shows. Anheuser-Busch used frogs and lizards but eventually children recognized the frogs.
“Children not only recognized them but could say ‘that’s for Budweiser,’ ” Drewniany said. Anheuser-Busch now focuses their attention on the Clydesdales, favorite characters that delight millions of adults whenever they appear.