Kool-Aid Man

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Kool-Aid Man

Kool-Aid Man is the mascot for Kool-Aid, a popular drink. The character has appeared on television and print advertising as a fun-loving character, appearing to children and sharing his Kool-Aid beverage, as well as his catchphrase "Oh yeah!" He is a gigantic anthropomorphic pitcher, filled with Tropical Punch Kool-Aid and marked with a fingerpainted smiley face. In 2009, the Kool-Aid Man celebrated his 34th birthday.

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[edit] History

Before he was officially the Kool-Aid Man in 1975, he was the “Pitcher Man”. The Pitcher Man was created in 1954 by Marvin Plotts, an art director for a New York-based advertising agency. General Foods had just purchased Kool-Aid from the drink’s creator Edwin Perkins the year before, and Plotts was charged with drafting a concept to illustrate the copy message: “A 5-cent package makes two quarts. " Working from his Chicago home on a cold day, Potts watched as his young son traced smiley face patterns on a frosty windowpane," recounts Sue Uerling, marketing and communications director for Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History. This inspired Marvin Plotts to create a beaming glass pitcher filled with flavorful drink: the Pitcher Man. From there on the joyful pitcher was on all the Kool-Aid’s advertisements. the voice of the man is John Fickley.

In 1975 Kraft Foods created the character’s first costume with arms and legs. He also became more of an action figure in commercials — performing extreme sports and busting through brick walls. Kool-Aid Man is famously known for shouting, “Oh, Yeah!” as he is summoned by thirsty children with the phrase, "Hey, Kool-Aid!". Commercials of the era also featured a catchy jingle, always ending with the Kool-Aid Man's phrase.

Starting in the late 1980s, the character was given dialogue, and his mouth would be digitally manipulated to "move" while the voice actor talked. Sometime in the 1990s, the live-action character was retired; from that point until 2008, the character became entirely computer-generated (although other characters -- such as the kids -- remained live-action). In 2000, a new series of commercials were created for Kool-Aid Fierce and the actor chosen to play Kool-Aid Man was Jon Carr. The most recent Kool-Aid commercials feature a new and different live-action Kool-Aid Man playing street basketball and battling "Cola" to stay balanced on a log.

Hastings Museum in Hastings, Nebraska, which opened the first permanent Kool-Aid exhibit in 2002, has Kool-Aid Man’s original costume on display. Made of fiberglass, the costume featured a more prominent face, skinnier body and no clothing. Now, he is made of inflatable nylon and is dressed in a shirt, jeans and shoes.

Kool-Aid Man was the subject of two Kool-Aid man video games for the Atari 2600 and the Intellivision systems. He was also given his own short-lived comic book series, The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man, in the early-to-mid-1980s by Marvel Comics.

Briefly in 2002 the Kool-Aid man was played by Brandon Tate as new commercials were created but were soon discontinued

[edit] References in popular culture

The Kool-Aid Man character is used as a running gag on the American animated cartoons Family Guy, The Simpsons, The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and has been parodied several times on Robot Chicken. In Family Guy he appears occasionally when everyone says "Oh-no" where he will burst through the wall with a jar of Kool-Aid and say "Oh-Yeah" before walking out the hole he came in. In one point in the series, the judge asks everyone to stop saying "Oh No" in the courtroom saying that the Kool-Aid Man will keep showing up. He appears in one episode at home (Peterotica), where a man drives through his wall and notices how annoying it is, he fixes it later just to have someone else drive through it, much to his anger.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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