Starkist Foods, Inc.: Charlie The Tuna campaign
William BaueOverview
The "Charlie the Tuna" campaign was born in 1961, the brainchild of Leo Burnett himself, founder of the eponymous Chicago ad agency that created more than 80 commercials for StarKist Foods, Inc., until it resigned the account in November 1994. Charlie's motivating characteristic was his perpetual inferiority complex. The cartoon tuna was constantly trying to impress upon the StarKist brand his worthiness through demonstrating his "good taste" by, for example, reading Shakespeare. Unfortunately for Charlie's ambitions, the fishing line lowered to his bottom-of-the-sea lair never held bait but always had...