From The Scoop: Willie and Millie

From the April 21 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop:

Did you know Kool cigarettes had their mascot before Kool cigarettes existed?

It's true. In 1931, Penguin cigarettes hit the market. The packaging featured a Penguin with its beak raised and its heavy wings raised in a sort of mid-flourish. Those who prefered menthol gravitated toward the Penguin brand, but its creators Brown and Williamson Tabacco Company, decided that the menthol draw wasn't prominent enough under the "Penguin" name (despite the fact that penguins personify icy refreshment).

The company changed the name of the cigarettes to Kool two years later. But they kept their Penguin mascot.

It would be another 14 years before this penguin was given a name. Willie the Penguin debuted in television ads. Ted Bates Advertising was responsible not only for Willie's name, but also his catchphrase (he only cooed the word, "Kool").

Graciously, the ad agency also provided lonely Willie a wife--Millie.

The TV ads transformed the previously sophisticated and unnamed top-hat-wearing, cig-toking penguin into a smiling, docile, cartoonish caricature. The cartoon Willie was often caught in ironic action--like bobsledding while inhaling nicotine.

He and his wife became popular collectibles. Their salt and pepper shakers were particularly fetching.

But alas, the evolving times took their toll on our childlike penguin pair. They couldn't very well be seen as jovial, athletic chain-smokers forever, now could they?

By the late 1950s, the ads began to wane. By the late 1960s, the images of Willie and Millie began to melt from our collective memory altogether.

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