If, like me, you enjoy trivia, you've probably seen a quiz or Internet listicle about which brand personnas were real people (Chef Boyardee, Duncan Hines) and which ones are made up (Betty Crocker, Mrs. Butterworth.) One that might surprise people is Colonel Sanders, of KFC fame, who was a real person. People older than me will remember seeing him in commercials, but people my age and under will only have seen him as a cartoon caricature, and probably assume he was made up just like Ronald McDonald.
I'm not old enough to remember him in ads, but his death in 1980 is one of the earliest news stories I can remember. That may not have been the biggest story back then, but for many kids, it was like being told that Santa was dead, so teachers had to patiently explain it to us. So that's why I cringe a little when I see the latest way that KFC has employed his image. Not that I have any connection to him - I can't even remember the last time I ate at KFC - but I do realize that it's an actual person that they're dealing with.
We've seen a few other people start the transition from human company founders and pitchmen to cartoon symbol: Orville Redenbacher and Wendy's Dave Thomas come to mind. I assume they wouldn't mind to much, since they were symbols of their brands in life, and creating a character to be a corporate figurehead. But even business leaders that seem more serious might be in a commercial down the road. A few years ago, Gottlieb Daimler showed up in a Mercedes ad, as a stilted way of introducing the new corporate slogan.
That ad had me imagining a future depiction of Bill Gates shown slaving over the original Edlin code, and saying the new slogan that will carry Microsoft into the 22nd century. Of course, that's ridiculous. Microsoft won't be in business that long. Though arguably Steve Jobs' public perception is about as exaggerated as any of these corpse corporate mascots, so maybe he's on his way to that fate.
But even if today's business superstars live on as corporate mascots, they'll still be playing catch-up to Colonel Sanders, who is now in his own comic book. Upon hearing about this, I assumed that it would be some cheesy corporate promotion that they would perhaps give out with whatever KFC calls it's Happy Meals. But no, it's an actual comic from DC, built around parallel Colonels from parallel universes. It's hard to tell what's going on from a quick glance, but they apparently have Russian Colonel, Stone Colonel, Sexy Colonel and Actual-Chicken Colonel.
I think it's safe to say this is a completely new level in the shift from person to symbol. On the one hand, it's nice to see a major brand having some fun with their mascot instead of taking themselves too seriously. But it's also weird to think that this cultural force was launched because some guy had a really good chicken recipe.
No comments:
Post a Comment