Content area
Full Text
Trade characters have been used as successful advertising tools in the United States for over one hundred years. American popular culture has quietly become inhabited by all sorts of talking animals and dancing products that are used as a communication system by advertisers. In 1982, a research study found that commercials with advertisingdeveloped characters who became associated with a brand scored above average in their ability to change brand preference (Stewart and Furse). It appears, then, that society is getting the message. However, although popular with advertisers and consumers, trade characters have been largely ignored in the study of advertising and popular culture. Through a review of the relevant literature, this paper will determine what trade characters are, and how they are employed in modern advertising practice to communicate to consumers in society.
Trade Characters: What They Are Little attention has been given to defining the term "trade character." In a perusal of dozens of advertising textbooks, only a few offer an explicit definition of the term. The rest are silent on the subject, or focus exclusively on what a trade character does as opposed to what a trade character is. Of the authors wi define "trade character," several offer vague explanations such as "a character created in association with a product" (Norris). There is little consensus among the remaining definitions; many of the more insightful contradict each other. Therefore, this paper will develop an explicit definition of the term "trade character" that considers four areas of contention: animate versus inanimate characters, non-trademarked versus trademarked characters, fictional versus real characters, and trade versus celebrity characters.
Animate Versus Inanimate Characters
Some of the current definitions of "trade character" are very broad, identifying a trade character as any visual symbol that is associated with a product (Dunn and Barban). By including all visual symbols, these authors classify inanimate objects such as the Prudential rock as trade characters. On the other hand, several definitions specify that a trade character must be an animate being or an animated object (Wright, Warner, and Winter; Mandell) thereby excluding the Prudential rock (unless it is made to sing or dance).
There are two reasons why trade characters should be restricted to animate beings or animated objects. The first is that the word...