Seafood News Foodservice & Retail

StarKist’s new message: ‘Thanks Charlie’

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By SeafoodSource staff
17 January, 2012 - After decades of listening to a talking tuna, consumers are talking back.

Advertisers are bringing back old characters and themes, like StarKist’s Charlie the tuna.

A campaign for StarKist tuna reworks the brand’s longtime “Sorry Charlie” theme — which StarKist began using to sell canned tuna in 1961 — to depict people saying, “Thanks Charlie” for newer products like tuna in pouches.

The StarKist campaign is part of a trend on Madison Avenue that might be called comfort marketing, which is becoming more popular as the economy sputters. Advertisers are bringing back vintage characters, themes and jingles in hopes that evoking fond memories of the past may help shoppers feel better about buying products now.

Comfort marketing is part of efforts to reassure consumers who demand value for money that they are buying products that have stood the test of time. But to counter perceptions that brands trading in nostalgia are too old-fashioned for contemporary needs, many of the revivals, like StarKist’s, also involve updating and refreshing the mascots, songs, slogans and other venerable ad elements.

Click here to read the full story from The New York Times >

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