Madison Avenue and the Resurrection of Orville Redenbacher.

Madison Avenue believes in the Resurrection.

Rising from the dead are jingles, taglines and iconic spokesmen.

Recently, Coke has once again said "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing," Burger King is going to "Have it your way" once more and that mustard company is asking, "Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" All of these taglines are being used once again in new :30 second spots from these iconic brands, designed to recreate the magic from the past.

And, perhaps the most recent example of trying to bring back advertising icons that once connected with the public, is the heralded resurrection of the very much deceased spokesperson for Orville Redenbacher popcorn, nicknamed in pop culture as "Deadenbacker.'

All this "return to" branding has its fans and critics. In a recent NY Post article, Chuck Porter of Cripin, Porter + Bogusky is quoted as saying "It's not an easy thing to find an icon or idea to engage the audience and connect with them. "When you find one, sometimes it's better to hold onto it."

But brand marketing expert Al Ries (an icon himself) says in the same article. "They almost never work."

I think Ries and Porter are both right. When you've struck lightning, trying to recreate it is an obvious choice--but a rather impossible task to pull off.

Which got me thinking: Why not just repeat the same thing, rather than making it better, or different or updated?

Aren't some of the old Maxwell House commercials that are the "best part of waking up" just fine the way they are? And who doesn't want to see Willard Scott dressed up as Ronald McDonald again?

So I say, don't update Madison Avenue--you'll never find lightning striking in exactly the same place twice, so why not just press the "replay" button and get over whatever ego is keeping you from saying..."there's no way we can improve upon that."

Comments

[Linas Simonis]

You misunderstand a little bit Al's phrase. "They almost never work" Al said to "new campaigns that failed to catch on as well as the originals". What is absolutely true.

I must acknowledge, that in NY article this was not very clearly expressed.

But thank you for interesting post!