CreatAbiliTOYS: The Museum of Advertising Icons

Do you remember Sprout? The Keebler Elves? The Maytag Repairman? Some advertising icons are as recognizable as favorite cartoon characters or toys. Others faded from our memories as quickly as the marketing campaigns they were meant to invigorate. CreatAbility, a Florida advertising and PR firm, keeps them alive with this whimsical but fact-filled virtual tribute based on a trove of collectibles in the firm's Miami offices. Enter the museum through its doors and browse the shelves for a look at more than a century of American popular culture and advertising history. You'll find trivia (Ronald McDonald was created in 1963 and "speaks" 21 languages; Bob's "Big Boy" has, since his creation in 1936, shed a few pounds and lightened his hair from dark brown to chestnut). There's also information about how these icons were used in marketing campaigns. For example, Big Boy was to be phased out by Marriott in the mid-1980s, but was kept after a national customer survey voted him back in a landslide decision. Also at the site (at www.toymuseum.com/cereal/timeline.html) is an exhibit on cereal advertising toys. This timeline includes a bit more contextual, although basic, history of the cereal industry, and links to icons associated with each company's ad campaigns throughout the twentieth century.