Crude? So What? These Characters Still Find Work in Ads

Stuart Elliott

The New York Times

June 18, 2008
 

THE characters on the Fox television series “Family Guy” make tasteless jokes about sex, AIDS, religion and bodily functions, purposely offending just about every group of people you could name.

So why are they all of a sudden the darlings of Madison Avenue?

Mainstream advertisers normally gravitate toward wholesome characters from mainstream shows that steer clear of hot buttons. Think Snoopy, the Flintstones and the Jetsons rather than Stewie, the diabolical infant from “Family Guy”; Peter, the buffoonish patriarch of the Griffin family; and Brian, the family dog who behaves like a person — a person who smokes and drinks martinis.

But in recent months, big brands like Coca-Cola, Subway and White Castle have been borrowing for their marketing efforts characters from “Family Guy,” which has been criticized for everything from anti-Semitism and sexism to homophobia and overall disgustingness.

“Looking at who our customers are and what programming they like, ‘Family Guy’ fell into that,” said Kim Bartley, vice president for marketing and site development at White Castle System in Columbus, Ohio.

“We’re looking for teens and young adults and young-at-heart adults,” she added, “who are interested in being a part of something different.”

Beginning this week, the White Castle restaurant chain is introducing a campaign that features members of the animated cast of “Family Guy” like Stewie and Brian. There will be cups bearing likenesses of the characters, posters in stores and radio commercials by JWT, part of the WPP Group.

“Our brand is quirky,” Ms. Bartley said, “not a brand like Burger King or McDonald’s.”

That made the agreement to use the “Family Guy” cast for the campaign “a good fit,” she added.

The trend on Madison Avenue to develop ads with cartoon characters that not so long ago would have had their anthropomorphic mouths washed out with soap is fairly recent. The concept gained popularity with “The Simpsons,” accelerated with “South Park” and continues with the dysfunctional Griffins from “Family Guy,” which along with “The Simpsons” is part of the Sunday night lineup on Fox Broadcasting, part of the News Corporation. “The Simpsons” is probably the mildest of the three, with “South Park” at the other extreme.

•

Hiring rude, crude ’toons instead of warm and fuzzy animated characters “goes with the times,” said Ira Mayer, president and publisher at The Licensing Letter, a newsletter in New York owned by EPM Communications.

“Edginess is acceptable,” Mr. Mayer said, particularly in appealing to teenagers. He offered as an example the fact that girls are wearing T-shirts in public with provocative slogans “that 10 years ago girls never would have worn.”

As unusual as it may be to license animated misfits for ads and merchandise, Mr. Mayer said, “with a cartoon character you still have a certain level of control and can control the offensiveness.” With an actor or a rock star, on the other hand, you take your chances, he said.

The Subway chain of sandwich shops used Peter Griffin — a working-class guy with a New England accent — in a campaign at the end of last year that included television commercials and signs in stores.

The ads promoted a new menu item, the Subway Feast, that would appeal to the character if he were real, because it is “a large sandwich with lots of meat,” said Tony Pace, chief marketing officer at the marketing arm of Subway in Milford, Conn., known as the Subway Franchisee Advertising Fund Trust.

“Peter’s a good representation of the people who are interested in the Feast,” Mr. Pace said, and “Family Guy” is a show “that appeals to that target audience.”

Still, there was “definitely a cadre of folks who thought it was a little controversial,” he added, particularly “some customers and some people in our system who were not big fans of being involved with it at all.”

So Subway and its national agency, MMB, which was involved in the campaign, were careful in development to make sure that “relative to the content of the show, it was pretty tame,” Mr. Pace said.

For instance, of the half-dozen scripts that were considered for the commercials, “four we couldn’t use,” he added, laughing, because “we’re still a family restaurant.”

“Peter was a bit of entertainment to get people to pay a little more attention,” Mr. Pace said. “We like to use things that are culturally relevant to sell our product, but you have to appeal to the target audience without denigrating your brand.”

For the Feast, “sales were pretty good during that time” the campaign ran, he added, and Subway would consider another “Family Guy” campaign.

The Coca-Cola Company, one of the most careful marketers when it comes to matters of taste, included Stewie Griffin, a baby who affects an English accent, in a Super Bowl commercial for its flagship soft drink, Coke Classic. The spot, by Wieden & Kennedy, told a humorous tale about rambunctious balloons that come to life in a make-believe version of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“We did do research on Stewie,” said Katie Bayne, chief marketing officer for the North American operations of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. “He obviously was an edgier personality.”

In Stewie’s favor was the success of “Family Guy,” Ms. Bayne said, as well as the character’s popularity as “a contemporary, young-adult icon.”

The commercial, which continues to run on TV, shows the Stewie balloon fighting for a Coke balloon above the streets of Manhattan with a balloon of a more mainstream character, Underdog. The plot takes a twist at the end when perhaps the most wholesome cartoon character of all, Charlie Brown of “Peanuts,” bests both to take the soda.

“We loved the balance of Stewie as a contemporary foil to Underdog first and then to Charlie Brown,” Ms. Bayne said. “Everyone loves Coca-Cola, and in the end the good guy wins.”

Ms. Bayne’s approbation is sweeter than a Coke to executives at 20th Century Fox Television, the News Corporation unit for which the creator of “Family Guy,” Seth MacFarlane, produces the series.

“To be able to align with the No. 1 brand in the world, Coca-Cola, we took great pride and pleasure,” said Elie Dekel, executive vice president for licensing and merchandising at 20th Century Fox Television in Los Angeles.

“About two years ago, I received a phone call from a buyer at Wal-Mart for ‘Family Guy’ merchandise,” Mr. Dekel recalled. “My concern was making sure the buyer was fully aware what he was getting into, so I sent three episodes and said, ‘Watch these and make sure your boss sees them.’ ”

“Since then, we’ve had steady sales at Wal-Mart,” he added.

To minimize problems, Mr. Dekel said, there is a policy against selling any “Family Guy” licensed products that are aimed at children under 14. The series is promoted on Fox Broadcasting as suitable for viewers 14 and older.

“We wouldn’t be presumptuous enough to suggest we haven’t been turned down based on edginess,” he added, referring to discussions with potential licensees, but “we need to partner with those who embrace the spirit and tonality of ‘Family Guy.’ ”

•

Gary Newman, chairman at 20th Century Fox Television, said that after “a little bit of slower growth,” the licensing of the “Family Guy” characters “is beginning to flourish,” including merchandise like clothing and video games as well as their use for advertising.

“There was a group of young people who loved it, but parents didn’t know about it,” Mr. Newman said of the series, which also now appears, in addition to the original episodes of Fox Broadcasting, on cable networks like Cartoon Network and TBS; in syndication; on the Hulu Web site (hulu.com); and on iTunes.

The challenge now becomes “how do you keep the show feeling edgy and rebellious as it becomes available on all those platforms?” he added.

One possible answer is a spinoff series. Fox Broadcasting has scheduled “The Cleveland Show,” featuring characters from “Family Guy,” for the 2008-9 season.