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Hanain Majeed
English 1020
2-1-10
Characters Make Commercials Memorable
They're grrrreat! Many of us associate that slogan with a big friendly talking tiger.
It seems that more companies are going towards animated characters to promote their
product. Companies such as Geico, Frosted Flakes, Scrubbing Bubbles, Aflac, and Nike
have taken the talking character route. Advertisers use slogans and catchy tunes to make
their product appealing, but when it comes from a cute character it is more memorable.
Consumers seem to remember commercials with talking animals, objects, and puppets
because the character seems more human- like and relatable. I believe it is necessary to
have animated characters in a commercial to attract attention to the product. If
commercials do not have catchy slogans and tunes made by a cute animated character
they are easily forgotten. I believe that Kellogs Frosted Flakes had the best animated
character; Tony the Tiger. He is memorable and loved by many; everyone knows who he
is and what he is selling. Advertisers that are creating animated characters in their
commercials are heading in the right direction, by appealing to their audience, making the
commercial memorable and making their product fun.
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Breakfast cereals broadcast a lot of commercials, in the year 2000, 1.3 million
hours of breakfast commercials were broadcasted. It seems that breakfast cereals have
pulled ahead in the animated commercial field. Cereals have characters such as tucan
Sam for Froot Loops, the captain from Captain Crunch and the rabbit from Trix. No
character compares to Frosted Flakes Tony the Tiger. He has been around since the
1950’s with the original Tony the Tiger that had a wife and kids. Today’s Tony the Tiger
is known as Tony Jr, son of the original Tony. I don’t know if it’s the fact that Tony has
been around for generations or if his catchy songs and slogans is what make people love
him. Tony the Tiger has had many phrases throughout his years. We all know Tony the
Tigers famous phrases “they’re grrrreat!,” which has been around since the beginning of
Tony the Tiger. “Put a tiger on your team” was also a phrase made famous by the
original Tony that is not used anymore. Today we see Tony the Tiger commercials with
catchy songs such as “Hey Tony we like the things you do!” No matter what Tony is
saying people always catch on to it and remember that commercial. Tony the Tigers
familiarity along the past 60 years is the main reason he is the most memorable animated
commercial character.
Where did animation in commercials start? Animated commercials have been
around for almost as long as television has been around. Since the 1940’s animation has
been used to catch the viewers attention to a certain product. One of the first animations
in the 40’s were talking horses, they animated the mouth to make the horses look like
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they were able to talk. This got viewers very interested back then because it’s something
that you don’t see everyday. It catches a viewers attention more that an infomercial on
why the cereal is best, that makes viewers change the channel.
Animation started because it caught people’s attention. In an animated
commercial there can be talking animals and objects, and flying objects. You can use
your imagination and the sky’s the limit. This was the idea behind the first animated
characters. Also in an animated commercial there is no need to cast the perfect actors
and pay them a significant amount of money. All you need to do is make the character the
way you imagine it to be.
Using animated characters in cereal commercials can target many age groups.
From children to adults animated characters can catch the eye of the viewer. Children
will sit there for hours watching cartoons. Animated characters make them want that
cereal, making them beg their parents to buy it. Children don’t really know what cereal is
healthy they just base it off fun characters like Tony the Tiger encourage you to buy it.
Tony the Tiger is more than just a character promoting a cereal like many others,
hes a role model for children. He does sell sugary fattening cereal but also encourages
playing sports with teamwork and exercising regularly. He shows kids the importance of
staying healthy and active when childhood obesity is sky rocketing. This is an angle that
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only Tony the Tiger took, while the other cereal were too busy encouraging the purchase
of their unhealthy cereal. This in fact is the reason Tony the Tiger has surpassed the
expectations of cereal characters. Tony the Tiger combined the sale of sugary kid- loving
cereal with the advice of staying fit to balance it out. This idea made Tony not only
marketable to children by his fun loving persona but to parents that think a tiger telling
their kids this information would be more effective then hearing it from them.
Tony the Tiger yet again exceeds the expectations of cereal characters by telling
kids reading is fun. Tony the Tiger tells kids that reading is a great hobby and that they
should all do it. This encourages kids to use their imagination and makes them smarter
growing up. Tony is the only fun loving kids character that gives life advice. This idea
was great since he is a voice kids will listen to.
From the beginning of TV animation has been used in commercials. Tony the
Tiger was one of the first characters to steal the hearts of kids and adults everywhere. He
is one of the few well known recognizable characters that promotes more than sugary
kids cereal. Tony the Tiger uses his appeal to kids to better kids lives by encouraging
activity, health, and reading. He truly shows how animated characters get the attention of
all age groups and stay with through fun songs and memorable quotes. If you ask anyone
who Tony the Tiger is they will always say “Frosted Flakes, they’re grrreat!”
Citations
Evans, Noell Wolfgram “Animated Television Commercials: 1940 - 1965: An
Overview.” Digitalmediafx.com 2000-2008
Kellogs Co. “Tony the Tiger – The History.” Kidzworld.com Inc., 2000-2009
“Tony theTiger.” Pictures-of-cats.org,