Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 3, 1993 TAG: 9212300239
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAULA SPAN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GHOSTS OF ADVERTISING PAST LIVE ANEW
What decade is this anyway?Flick on the tube, and there's a fuzzy brown mutt seated at a piano, warbling "N-E-S-T-L-E-S," an ad jingle from auld lang syne. He's not precisely the same puppet pooch who was a staple of Saturday morning television from 1955 to 1965 - this one's in color, and he's surrounded by harmonizing hounds in red caps and ski sweaters - but he's recognizably Farfel. You can tell by the way his jaw snaps shut at the end of the tune: "Nestle's makes the very best . . . chaw-klit."
Change the channel, and you're likely to come across Nipper, the wistful terrier who has been an RCA trademark since 1929 but was reintroduced to TV advertising just two years ago. As was that monocled boulevardier Mr. Peanut, looking pretty spry for a 76-year-old.
And Elsie the Cow will return! Though she may lose that garland of daisies around her neck. "We're giving her a look for the '90s," says a Borden spokesman.
But why bother? The whole point of this renewed reliance on the ghosts of advertising past is to escape the '90s.
These days, multiplying media options and fragmenting audiences have made building a recognizable trademark a daunting task for any advertiser.
Farfel, Mr. Peanut al. hail from a simpler marketing era, when much more of America tuned into the same three TV networks or leafed weekly through the Saturday Evening Post. That an astonishing number of consumers still know and respond to these early offspring of Madison Avenue shows how effectively they stamped themselves upon the national consciousness.
One out of two American adults recognizes Elsie, though she hasn't appeared in TV advertising since the mid-'70s. Planters tested public affection for its venerable Mr. Peanut against that for such other icons as Tony the Tiger, Charlie the Tuna and the Pillsbury Doughboy.
"He was right at the top, in all age groups," says a proud Sandy Putnam, vice president and general manager of Planters. Even consumers who don't know Farfel's name (it's Yiddish for a type of hand-cut noodle) or Nipper's still associate the dogs with the appropriate products.
Meanwhile, the producers themselves have mutated, diversified, globalized. When he was invented back in 1916, Mr. Peanut was the trademark of the Planters Nut and Chocolate Co., period.
Now, the Planters LifeSavers Co. is a division of the Nabisco Foods Group, which is part of RJR Nabisco, formed by one of the most-hostile takeovers of the '80s. And Nipper is associated with a company that no longer exists: RCA's consumer electronics division and its trademarks were acquired by General Electric in 1986 and then sold to the Paris-based Thomson F.A.
No wonder marketers are opting for nostalgia. "None of these companies has managed to come up with another icon that's linked with such memories," says Barbara Lippert, ad critic for Adweek. "These pre-technical symbols take on poignancy and power; they signify a time when we were innocent."
Nipper (cocked head, "His Master's Voice," you remember) has been an RCA logo for years, but he was never an ad star and he was never a live dog. Now, he's prominent in print and television and has acquired a young-pup sidekick, who after a nationwide contest was christened Chipper.
In this case, the creative team at Ammirati & Puris decided it was necessary to teach the old dog new tricks. Nipper "had tremendous brand identity, but in electronics everything is now-now-now," explains Tony Gomes, vice president and copy supervisor. "The nostalgia was important for recognition of RCA, but it was a detriment because of the old-fashioned element. . . . Chipper represents a new generation of products" like large-screen TVs with fancy sound systems.
Mr. Peanut, similarly, never completely disappeared but had been relegated to packaging and in-store posters. Now he's computer-animated and has been emceeing Planters's "Everybody Loves a Nut" TV campaign. "He is a classic American icon, a Fred Astaire bon vivant who never speaks but has grace and charm," says Phil Balshi, executive vice president of Lintas, Planters's agency.
For his newest spots, airing next spring with the launch of a spicy Tex-Mex product called Planter's Heat, Mr. P. will trade his spats for cowboy boots and a western-style kerchief. He'll keep the top hat, though.
As for Elsie, star of the 1939 New York World's Fair and probably the nation's best-known Jersey cow, you'll be seeing her on dairy-product commercials beginning in February or March.
In a nod to traditionalism, she'll be flanked by her family, husband Elmer and calves Beulah and Beauregard. She'll mouth a tried-and-true slogan, "If it's Borden, it's got to be good." And just like Hillary Clinton, she's being given a "softer look," Borden spokesman Jim McKinley says.
But don't write her off as a bovine throwback. Her agency, Grey Advertising, is planning snazzy "Roger Rabbit"-style animation that will allow her to interact with humans. And it's testing story boards that portray her as - what else? - a talk-show hostess, McKinley discloses. "She'll do more than moo."