He’s the jolly bearded Father Christmas lookalike who for decades has dominated the seas – and our TV screens – as the familiar face of Birds Eye frozen fish fingers.
But with a handful of fellow male advertising mascots Captain Birds Eye has been temporarily elbowed aside – and replaced with a more youthful female equivalent – in a new drive to highlight the lack of women fronting some of the UK’s top household brands.
In the mighty Kellogg’s stable, the cartoon-style Frosties mascot Tony the Tiger – arguably the daddy of all furries whose figure is a familiar sight on the nation’s cereal boxes – is now Toni the Tiger – but still naked apart from her jaunty red neckerchief. From the same manufacturer, the round-faced moustachioed man on the Pringles carton – known as Julius Pringle – has had his facial hair removed and pink cheeks painted in.
The corporate branding makeovers were the brainchild of digital marketing agency Boom, on behalf of its client CDA (a kitchen appliance manufacturer) after being struck by figures showing that male brand mascots still outnumber female mascots two-to-one.
Taking the selection of popular brand mascots, it set about altering them to give them a more feminine appearance, but using a subtle design approach to make clear that women can easily represent brands without the need to over-feminise. The new images are being shown ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday.
The burly Mr Muscle who helps promote the popular cleaning brand has metamorphised into a sporty-looking Ms Muscle – her toned arms accessorised with blue Marigolds – while the stubbornly cross-armed white fluffy Toilet Duck (from the same manufacturer, S. C. Johnson) which illustrates the Duck toilet cleaner – named after the duck shape of its bottle – has been slimmed down.
Carrie Bell, consumer marketing manager at CDA, said; “International Women’s Day is an important event which we should all be shouting about. It’s about making sure women get the recognition they deserve; but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun with it too. The idea to gender-swap overtly masculine icons made sense but subtlety was key, female doesn’t have to mean typically feminine anymore.”
Whether cartoon-style or not, advertising and marketing mascots are known to be a significant influence in children’s lives – with similar impact to popular characters in TV and film.
Last year the Fawcett Society announced a year-long commission into the effects of gender stereotyping in early childhood, examining the harm it can cause while challenging retailers and manufacturers to drop what it claimed were “lazy” stereotypes.
