Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings
Citrus & Vegetable Magazine
I cannot find an issue of C&V later than 2014, and the website you see on the cover below seems down. But certainly, if they still exist, they will find it hard to beat the cover for the April 1977 issue.
Posted By: Paul - Sat May 16, 2020 -
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Category: Agriculture, Business, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Magazines
Kream Krunch
The Kream Krunch man definitely deserves a place in our ongoing series of strange corporate mascots.Kellogg's introduced Kream Krunch cereal in 1965. The gimmick was that the cereal included chunks of freeze-dried ice cream. The chunks were supposed to stay crunchy in milk, but reportedly they quickly dissolved into a gooey mess, which made the cereal a commercial failure that was soon discontinued.
However, the cereal is most widely remembered today for the creepy, anthropomorphized ice cream cone that served as its official mascot. Wikipedia notes: "The character was never officially named, referred to by historians simply as the Kream Krunch Cone, although it has been called Mr. Scoop Head in popular culture."
More info: MrBreakfast.com, History's Dumpster
Posted By: Alex - Wed Apr 22, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Cereal, 1960s
Yumion, the Vidalia Onion Mascot
Posted By: Paul - Thu Apr 09, 2020 -
Comments (4)
Category: Agriculture, Anthropomorphism, Business, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Regionalism, Fictional Monsters
Linda Lawson, Miss Cue
From her Wikipedia page:On May 5, 1955, Lawson was dubbed "Miss Cue"[4][5] in reference to a series of nuclear tests conducted by the US military under "Operation Teapot," and publicized as "Operation Cue" in a short film distributed by the US Federal Civil Defense Administration. [6]
Posted By: Paul - Sun Feb 16, 2020 -
Comments (3)
Category: Death, Government, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s
Follies of the Madmen #461
Most hideous and amateurish product mascot ever?
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Jan 13, 2020 -
Comments (1)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Business, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, 1970s
Peter Pain Parody
Alex and I never coordinate our posts, but sometimes they achieve thematic synchronicity. Yesterday, for instance, he posted about losing weight and I posted about obesity.But his post from today, about Corporate Icon Peter Pain, happened magically to dovetail with my leisure-time reading of last evening, when I was enjoying THE THING FROM THE GRAVE, a collection of the work that artist Joe Orlando did for the fabled EC Comics. I read Orlando's Peter Pain Parody, and then this morning found Alex's post!
BTW: the whole line of EC reprints from Fantagraphics is worthy of your attention.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Dec 05, 2019 -
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Category: Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Comics, Homages, Pastiches, Tributes and Borrowings, 1950s, Parody, Pain, Self-inflicted and Otherwise
Peter Pain
Continuing our ongoing theme of strange corporate mascots: Peter Pain was the villainous mascot of Ben-Gay from 1942 to 1965. He's not to be confused with the British judge named Peter Pain. (or the dentist Dr. Pain).
NY Herald Tribune - 1946 (via Duke Library)
Some more info about him from The Austin American (Oct 13, 1965):
Peter Pain's behavior remained steadfast — he was rotten to the core. In his heyday, he threw a kleig light at a television quiz kid, pounded an umbrella into the back of a grandfather celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary, clouted a sweet little old lady with a hammer and spike and turned his pitchfork on the stomach of a nice young farmgirl.
Despite the mayhem, every adventure invariably ended happily. In each strip, someone would reach for the Ben-Gay and in no time the aches and pains of the harried souls would disappear.
"Drat, Ben-Gay," was Peter Pain's frequent lament as the episode came to an end.
Now, with the introduction of a new product (Ben-Gay Lotion), it has been announced, with regret, that the services of Peter Pain will no longer be used.
"We decided Peter Pain is not a fun guy," a Ben-Gay spokesman explained.
Chicago Tribune Magazine - 1953 (via Duke)
Austin American - Oct 13, 1965
Update: After posting this, I noticed that Paul had previously posted a Peter Pain ad in his Follies of the Madmen series (#404).
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 05, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings
Follies of the Madmen #452
Nothing like adding a sex element to simple juvenile love of chocolate.
Source.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Nov 11, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: Business, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Contests, Races and Other Competitions, Sexuality, Chocolate, 1950s
The Life Cereal Protein Spokes-creature
Most cereal spokes-beings are identifiable characters: leprechauns, toucans, sea captains. But this character for Life Cereal is apparently a Protein.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Nov 02, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, Food
Crazy Cow Cereal
Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Thu Aug 22, 2019 -
Comments (1)
Category: Anthropomorphism, Excess, Overkill, Hyperbole and Too Much Is Not Enough, Food, Advertising, Corporate Mascots, Icons and Spokesbeings, 1970s
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |