Top 10 Wacky Advertising Characters

Kids are very impressionable. I know this for a fact because I was probably the most impressionable kid ever (and still am to a certain degree...some call that being naive though). Anyway, big corporations know this so they create these friendly looking fictional characters to help promote their products. There are a handful that I remember from back in the day. Here are my top 10.

10.) Trix Rabbit

Poor Trix rabbit, all he wanted was a scoop of Trix and he'd be happy. Instead, he'd be denied by obnoxious stuck up kids. The Trix rabbit tried to use every disguise but it never seemed to work. Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids. Who said discrimination can't extend to cereals?





9.) The Snuggle Bear

More like a Teddy Ruxpin knockoff, the snuggle bear just made me think of soft clothes despite his herky jerk movements on commercials. He made so much of an impression on me as a kid, that a few times in college I washed my clothes entirely in Snuggle...I thought Snuggle was a detergent and not a fabric softener. They smelled great despite the dirt and vomit stains that were still there.



8.) Kool-Aid Man

I don't remember much about the Kool-Aid Man except he liked to run through walls and his vocabulary was primarily limited to saying "Oh yeah!!!". I think this would make a great Halloween costume.



7.) Tony The Tiger

If you look back, I did a blog on my all time favorite cereals so I wanted to limit the number of cereal characters but who deny the goodness of Tony the Tiger. Of course, I HATED this cereal because it was coated in pure sugar and looked more white than the brown flakes it was supposed to be in. Still, Tony ever being the pitchman kept saying just how greeeeeeat they really were. The below commercial show just how well someone can play hockey after having 10 spoonfuls of sugar.




6.) The Pink Panther (insulation)



This one REALLY fooled me. I mean, every kid knew who the Pink Panther was. So why in God's name would you use him to promote something that looks EXACTLY like cotton candy. I never did it, but I can't imagine how many kids put that glass infested insulation into their mouths because the Pink Panther would NEVER do anything to harm a child. I'm serious here....how did this get past the marketing department?

5.) The bugs that die every time in the Raid commercial.

I used to love these commercials. You have the bugs dressed up like burglars causing havoc on people's homes and then you see the giant spray bottle and comes their death scream of "RAAAAIID!!!!". If anything, these commercials made me think that any bugs I saw in my parent's house were just hanging out.



4.) The two dancing bears wiping their asses in that toilet paper commercial.

Okay, so this one isn't that old but I laugh out loud everytime I see those dancing bears wiping their asses with the roll of toilet paper. Good stuff here.



3.) Crazy Eddie

The only somewhat REAL person used for the advertising purposes. Before Best Buy and even The Wiz, there was Crazy Eddie's. The spokesman, Crazy Eddie, was this guy who would literally shout at you the entire commercial telling you about how "insane" his deals were. There was some kind of controversy about the owner of the Crazy Eddie stores and the guy in the ads but who cares? I just loved this guy.



2.) Crimedog McGruff

He was featured more as a cartoon character telling kids how to be safe but anyone reading this who graduated from the West Islip public school system will always remember him as the puppet that the sex ed teacher would use in elementary school. Once I learned about what a scrotum was and the difference between the vulva and the mon pubis, this lady would whip out ol Crime Dog McGruff to sing about not letting strangers tough you there. I can't make this up.



1.) Smokey The Bear

"Only you can prevent forest fires, only YOU". Those words came from the menacing voice of Smokey The Bear. Folks, I give you the scariest commercial of all time. Just wait until the end.