Old Advertising Characters Revived…


… for political satire.
NewTeeVee reports: Super Bowl Ads of Yore Revamped for ’08 Election: “Now, with the election just a week away, we’ve come full circle with two more ads from Super Bowls past revamped for online political purposes. Office Linebacker ‘Terrible’ Terry Tate has returned to put the hurt on fools who don’t vote, while the ‘Wassup’ guys guys have suffered every great malady our nation has gone through over the last eight years.”

Wall Street Journal, ‘Whassup’ Comes Out for Obama – WSJ.com: “The parody is raising eyebrows in ad circles, partly because Budweiser’s maker, Anheuser-Busch, can’t do much to stop it. In a departure from normal industry practice, neither Anheuser nor its ad firm, Omnicom Group’s DDB Chicago, own the Whassup slogan or concept. Instead, the brewer paid Mr. Stone roughly $37,000 to license the idea for five years. That deal expired three years ago, says Mr. Stone, who appeared with his buddies in several of the Budweiser Whassup ads.”

Andrew Raff @andrewraff