Reddy Kilowatt
Mar 15, 2009 11:41:23 GMT -5
Post by Defiant1 on Mar 15, 2009 11:41:23 GMT -5
Reddy Kilowatt
seattlepi.nwsource.com/virgin/277365_virgin13.html
Defiant1
seattlepi.nwsource.com/virgin/277365_virgin13.html
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Why Reddy Kilowatt is no longer current
By BILL VIRGIN
P-I COLUMNIST
Here is one of those cultural reference points that will have half the readership saying, "Oh, yeah, I remember him," and the other half saying, "Who?"
Whatever became of Reddy Kilowatt?
Reddy Kilowatt, for those who had forgotten as well as those who never knew in the first place, was the spokesman -- spokesthing, spokesvolt? -- for the electric utility industry. He had a torso and limbs made of lightning bolts, a light bulb for a nose and wall outlets for ears.
The character was dreamed up by an executive at Alabama Power Co. in the 1920s but quickly spread to other utilities as a way to promote both consumption and safety. Puget Sound Energy's predecessor, Puget Power, began using Reddy Kilowatt in 1937, but turned the dimmer switch on him in the 1960s.
Reddy Kilowatt was featured in advertising, comic books for kids and all sorts of gimcracks and giveaway items (you can find lots of Reddy Kilowatt paraphernalia on, where else, eBay). There's also a credit union in eastern Canada still operating under the Reddy Kilowatt name.
The rights to Reddy Kilowatt were bought by Northern States Power Co., which set up a subsidiary to license the Reddy Kilowatt and Reddy Flame (a character created to promote natural gas) trademarks. A spokesman for Northern States' parent, Xcel Energy, declined to say what plans the company has for Reddy Kilowatt.
That Reddy Kilowatt is no longer a leading figure in the world of corporate advertising isn't, pardon the phrase, a shock. Electric utilities are supposed to be encouraging their customers to use less electricity, not cheering them on to buy more stuff to plug into the wall.
But Reddy's fade from the scene brings up a larger issue: Why do companies make so little use of fictional characters to promote themselves these days?
Particularly since, it might be added, two of the most recognizable advertising campaigns going involve made-up characters -- the Aflac duck and the Geico gecko.
Yet those two are more illustrative of how much advertising has changed from the days when American advertising was replete with fictional characters to promote products or causes: The Green Giant. Speedy Alka-Seltzer. Smokey Bear. Betty Crocker. Ronald McDonald. No sugar-laden cereal from Kellogg, Post or General Mills was worth mentioning on a Saturday morning kids' cartoon show without a spokesfigure -- Cap'n Crunch, Tony the Tiger, the Lucky Charms leprechaun.
Perhaps those characters were regarded as too corny, hokey or old-fashioned to be of much value in swaying a supposedly more media-savvy audience.
Instead, companies have substituted celebrities -- also a long tradition in advertising -- to carry the message. That's a strategy replete with risk, should the celebrity wind up on a police blotter or quoted saying something outrageous.
But celebrities can also bring huge rewards. Bob Moore, the Seattle-based chief creative officer for Publicis USA, cites the example of Catherine Zeta-Jones who helped raise the profile of cellular phone service T-Mobile in a crowded category.
Moore isn't convinced that the use of characters as promotional icons has declined. If anything, computer-generated graphics and images make it much easier to come up with a convincing duck, gecko or some other animal that "doesn't look like Francis the Talking Mule."
Characters also still retain considerable power to embed the name of an advertiser in the consumer's mind, Moore says. While acknowledging that the current version of the Burger King, with his frozen-in-plastic face, is regarded by many as "creepy," he also says viewers are "not going to walk away from that thinking it's a Carl Jr.'s commercial."
"Things run in cycles," he adds. If advertisers find celebrities too expensive, humor too flat or CG animation too repetitive, they may swing back to the use of fictional icons. That would be good news for Reddy Kilowatt, who is probably itching to get out of the Advertising Icons Retirement Home where he's been whiling away the hours playing endless games of cards with Mr. Whipple (kids, ask your parents).
Defiant1