Captain Birdseye Advertising (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, Captain Birdseye is the advertising mascot of the brand. Appearing in numerous television and billboard commercials since 1967, he was played by actor John Hewer between then and 1998. He is depicted as a clean living, older sailor with a white beard, dressed in merchant navy uniform and with a seafaring accent. This character was so successful that when the company's brand was relaunched with a younger man with designer stubble (played by Thomas Pescod), the project floundered and the older description of the character was brought back into the promotions. In 1993, Captain Birds Eye was voted as the most recognised captain after Captain Cook in a poll.
The Captain Birdseye mascot is a reference to the brand's extensive and well-known range of frozen seafood products, including Fish Fingers. Because the Birds Eye brand is marketed to families, many of the advertising campaigns feature Captain Birdseye as having a "crew" composed mostly of children in the preteen to teenage age groups, encouraging brand loyalty from children and emphasising the convenience of serving the company's products to their parents. A 2005 advertising campaign in the UK features Captain Birdseye informing consumers that Birds Eye readymade meals contain no artificial flavourings or preservatives, with an emphasis that they are healthy to children.
Read more about this topic: Birds Eye
Famous quotes containing the words captain and/or advertising:
“O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“The same people who tell us that smoking doesn’t cause cancer are now telling us that advertising cigarettes doesn’t cause smoking.”
—Ellen Goodman (b. 1941)