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Willie's World Featured Story
Willie Wiredhand's life story
(Note to readers: This article first appeared in the January 2001 issue of Electric Consumer marking Willie's 50th anniversary as the electric cooperative spokescharacter.)
Perky mascot Willie Wiredhand keeps plugging away for electric co-ops and consumers
 by Richard G. Biever
Just
a touch of tarnish may be creeping into his brass-plated crown. And the
roundness of his waistline is a sure indication that he’s a child of
the ’50s — now into his 50s. But the twinkle in his eye, the smile on
his face, the ever-present wave will never age — nor will his dedicated
service to rural electric cooperatives and their consumers.
Willie
Wiredhand, the little guy with a light-socket head, push-button nose
and an electrical plug for his bottom and legs, celebrated 50 years as
co-op spokes-character and mascot in 2001. He’s still the friendly and
inspirational golden boy who symbolizes dependable, local,
consumer-owned electricity.
He’s appeared in just about every type of cooperative publication and
promotional item: signage, stationery, newsletters, annual reports and
advertising, coffee mugs, watches, shirts, baseball jerseys, beach
towels, night lights, bobbleheads and more.
He’s even been placed into Christmas ornament handcrafted by Electric Consumer readers for our annual ornament contest.
Though
his presence on both the local and national stage has diminished in
recent years in light of more advanced co-op marketing, Willie remains
a viable and valuable conduit of information between many co-ops and
their consumers.
“Willie is one of a long line of
distinguished industrial spokes-characters that have been used to
identify and personalize industrial products and services,” said
Margaret F. Callcott, who has extensively researched and written about
these gesturing little pluggers of the advertising world. “Many
marketers of products and services would love to have a symbol as
recognizable as Willie to distinguish them in the current marketplace.
Those lucky enough to have these consumer icons at their disposal will
do well to figure out how to leverage them in the new century.”
Of ‘loyal servants’ and gods
Willie’s
actual birthdate is traced to Oct. 30, 1950. He was the creation of
Andrew McLay, a free-lance artist for the National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association in Washington, D.C.
“We were toying with
ideas for a rural electrification symbol,” recalled William S. Roberts
in a tribute to McLay, who died of cancer at age 52 in 1974. Roberts
was editor of Rural Electrification magazine, NRECA’s
trade publication, in the 1950s. “I had tossed out the idea that the
symbol ought somehow to portray rural electric service as the farmer’s
hired hand, which in those days was almost the entire PR story we had
to get across. Drew picked up both the idea and a sketch-pad one night
at our home after a couple of beers.”
Sprawled out on Roberts’ living room floor, McLay gave birth to “Willie the Wired Hand.”
NRECA’s
membership selected Willie as their animated ambassador at their
national meeting in February 1951. Willie’s name was soon shortened to
“Willie Wiredhand.”
In the grand order of the spokes-character
cosmos, Willie falls under the “product personification.” “These
characters,” Callcott said, “were usually cast as ‘loyal servants’ of
the consumer, deriving credibility from a message of dependability and
devoted service.”
Willie came along in the heyday of animated
advertising characters. Hundreds, promoting everything from bleaches to
stomach antacids, were already in the marketplace. But Callcott tracked
their rise to the late 1890s when a French tire company created a guy
made of what looked to be stacked tires — the Michelin Man. And his
tread hasn’t worn out yet. In fact, a live-action smiling Michelin Man
is back in recent TV commercials driving in the rain and looking for
his pet, a puppy with similar puffy rounded features, or lovingly
inspecting each Michelin tire before it heads out the door.
“These
characters exhibited personality … a friendly face and jolly demeanor
with which consumers could develop a positive relationship,” Callcott
wrote in her 217-page doctorate dissertation for the University of
Texas at Austin in 1993. She explained that with the rise of mass
production and mass transportation at the beginning of the 20th
century, companies needed a way to distinguish their products and at
the same time build trust among consumers. They filled both needs in
the fabricated characters who spoke through the emerging mass media.
For
whatever reason, people connected and responded to these characters.
They touched on a human need to personify things. Today, Callcott, a
research manager for Scripps Networks in Knoxville, noted, “By the time
we reach adulthood, personification is ingrained in our psyche: we name
our vehicles, our plants, our guns, and even our body parts, always
seeking to relate to them on some human level, never quite believing
that somehow they don’t have a soul of their own.”
The
personification of animals and inanimate objects goes much deeper into
human history, though. “This need to place ideas and objects on a human
level dates back to ancient times, when gods were created to personify
abstract concepts such as strength and love, as well as little
understood natural forces like sunshine and thunder,” she said.
In
modern times, personification allowed consumers to get to know new
products and little understood services. Instead of the gods of war and
harvest and love, into the modern pantheon came humanized symbols for
snack foods, household cleansers, stomach antacids, canned vegetables
and glue-all which people could know on a first name basis. Instead of
Thor, Apollo, Demeter and Aphrodite came Mr. Peanut, Mr. Clean, Speedy
Alka-Seltzer, the Jolly Green Giant and Elsie the Cow.
“Gas and
electric companies in particular have had the challenge of personifying
a very intangible product,” Callcott said. “Reddy Kilowatt, Willie
Wiredhand, Katie Kord, Handy Heat and Miss Flame were among the many
characters created to answer this challenge.”
Reddy vs. Willie
Electric
cooperatives formed in the 1930s to bring electric power to the vast
unserved areas of rural America. Though, most of rural America had
power by 1949, many consumers were still in the dark when it came to
understanding electricity and the ways it could improve the farm and
the lives of farm families. To help get the message out, co-ops wanted
a spokes-character, too, and turned to the leading industry spokesman,
the fanciful Reddy Kilowatt.
Reddy had been around since 1926
and was used by 188 utilities in almost every state. He was depicted
with a body, arms and legs of jagged red electrical bolts and had a
round head with a light bulb for a nose and outlets for ears.
The
creator of Reddy, Ashton B. Collins, who licensed his character to
private power companies, refused to let consumer-owned co-ops use the
symbol. He cited power company propaganda that co-ops were
“socialistic” because they relied on federal loans and didn’t want
Reddy associated with them. Furthermore, Collins’ lawyers warned co-ops
through a series of letters that any character co-ops created would
infringe on Reddy’s exclusive patents and trademarks.
A year
later, though, in 1950, NRECA pressed on believing its new creation —
Willie — with his UL-like-approved body suggesting the practical
application of electricity, was different enough from Reddy who
represented the abstract idea of electrical energy. “Any similarity
between trim, efficient Willie and the shocking figure of Reddy
Kilowatt is purely coincidental,” one co-op official said.
Willie’s
creation and adoption by the electric cooperatives was a jolt to Reddy
and the investor-owned utilities. After a couple of years of angry
exchanges and increasing static between Reddy’s lawyers and Willie’s
defenders, Collins and a coalition of 109 private power companies
formed Reddy Kilowatt, Inc. Its first act was to file a lawsuit in
South Carolina’s federal district court against young Willie on July
14, 1953. The suit charged co-ops of infringing on Reddy’s registered
trademarks and practicing unfair competition in the electric utility
industry. Reddy and company asked for an injunction to bar the use of
Willie in co-op advertising and repayment of damages caused to Reddy’s
owners.
In essence, Reddy and his legal henchmen were trying to pull the plug on Willie.
The
gist of Reddy’s lawsuit was not in how Willie looked. Rather, Reddy’s
lawyers argued that in marketing electricity, Willie’s poses so closely
resembled Reddy’s that the public would be confused. Willie’s attorneys
countered that long before Reddy, other animated characters had been in
widespread use, even in the electrical industry, as trademarks and ad
promotions.
From their beginning, co-ops had constantly fought
skirmishes with private power companies attempting to thwart the
success of non-profit utilities over territory and power supply.
Appropriately, the battle between Willie and Reddy was symbolic of the
David vs. Goliath struggle between co-ops and private power companies.
“This is the most vicious thing that the rural electric systems have
yet encountered,” quipped Clyde T. Ellis, NRECA general manager at the
time. “We’re not fighting one or ten power companies this time. There
are over a hundred of them suing us.”
In June 1956, a federal
judge sided with Willie and the co-ops. Reddy appealed to the U.S.
Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit. A three-judge panel heard the case
and, on Jan. 7, 1957, issued its unanimous decision reaffirming the
lower court.
The court noted the similarities between their
poses but added that Reddy has appeared in “thousands of poses doing
almost everything humanly possible and in every conceivable activity.”
The judges ruled, “The plaintiff has no right to appropriate as its
exclusive property all the situations in which figures may be used to
illustrate the manifold uses of electricity.”
Incidentally,
the case also ended Reddy’s monopoly over other power companies.
Testimony during the trials revealed that Reddy’s syndicate often acted
like B-grade movie gangsters using threats of lawsuits and intimidation
to keep other private power companies from creating their own
spokes-characters. The Willing Watts from Arkansas Power & Light
Co.; Eddie Edison by the Boston Edison Co.; Elec-Tric by Cincinnati Gas
and Electric Co.; Mr. Watts-His-Name by Bradford Electric Co.; Mr.
Watt-A-Worker, by New Orleans Public Service Inc., were just a few
characters silenced by Reddy’s handlers.
Though Willie
symbolized co-op friendliness, he also embodied co-op spunk, willing to
stand up for what was right in the face of impossible odds. “He’s
small, but he’s ‘wirey’” became part of Willie’s trademark which was
granted by the U.S. Patent Office later in 1957. The registration
allowed Willie to become the beloved character he remains today.
Baby boomer revival
By
the 1970s, overall popularity waned in the use of spokes-characters.
Most of the ones that remained were relegated to promoting sugary kid
cereals and snack foods.
Reddy had a hard time adjusting to the
energy crunches of the ’70s, as the demand for electricity began to
exceed supply. Many power companies gave Reddy the pink slip, figuring
the need for a strong marketing tool was no longer needed. Reddy was
forced into semi-retirement.
Willie, on the other hand, donned a
sweater and hopped on a bicycle in new ads to promote energy
conservation. He was shown caulking and offering energy tips. But,
before long, many co-ops viewed him, too, as outdated and placed him on
a back shelf like an old appliance.
Then, around 1985, Callcott
noted, there was a resurgence in spokes-character advertising. Charles
Schulz’s Peanuts characters started successfully selling Metropolitan
Life Insurance about the same time animation made a comeback with the
hit movies, “The Little Mermaid” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”.
Much of the rebirth was fueled by a sizable baby boomer market eager to recapture facets of its childhood, Callcott said.
She noted that in the trade publication Advertising Age,
King Features Syndicate took out “work wanted” ads for old cartoon
favorites Betty Boop, Popeye, Blondie and Family Circus, putting them
up for hire with the nostalgia-oriented tagline, “Friends from
childhood last forever.”
Hoping to capture the fancy of
nostalgic baby boomers and position itself for what was expected to be
the coming competition in the electric utility market, Northern States
Power Co. brought Reddy Kilowatt out of retirement in 1998. The
Minneapolis-based electricity provider, serving 1.4 million customers
in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and the Dakotas, bought the exclusive
rights to Reddy from Ashton Collins Jr., son of Reddy’s creator, who
was living in Albuquerque. Reddy, who was only being licensed to a
handful of other companies at the time, still carried strong
recognition as a dependable and trustworthy symbol of electric service,
NSP reasoned.
Reddy was fitted with new sneakers and even
given a sidekick, Reddy Flame, to promote NSP’s gas operations. The
company also opened a Reddy Store, offering new and vintage
collectibles and memorabilia with his image.
Reddy’s comeback as
a full-fledged spokes-character, however, suffered a major black out
shortly after his revival. Northern States Power merged in August 2000
with Denver-based New Century Energies under the name Xcel Energy, Inc.
A spokesman said, “Reddy is in a bit of transition to his new employer,
and right now his duties are mostly ceremonial (parades and safety
demonstrations). We’re still working on how he will fit into the
overall Xcel Energy strategy.”
‘A spokes-plug for all time’
Willie
Wiredhand may not live on for millennia as the gods of mythology have.
But, as this new millennium dawns, Willie’s place is secure in the
hearts of many consumers.
“Although Willie and his many
spokes-character friends may rise and fall in prominence over the
years, I think we can be assured of their continued presence,” Callcott
said.
“The landscape may change, but people do not lose their
desire to feel a personal connection to products and services that
permeate their lives. If anything, this need intensifies when
distribution channels expand … as they did at the turn of the last
century with mass production and mass transportation, and as they have
at the turn of this century with the introduction of the Internet.
“Unlike
human characters, such as Aunt Jemima and Betty Crocker, Willie does
not require physical updating to maintain credibility,” Callcott
continued. “As a plug, he still personifies electric power. As a
spokes-character, he has come to represent a ‘brand’ of reliable
electric power (consumer-owned vs. investor-owned).
“Willie,” she said, “is truly a spokes-plug for all time.”
Story by Richard G. Biever, senior editor of Electric Consumer. Willie
Wiredhand is a registered trademark of the National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association and cannot be used without permission of NRECA.
Visit Willie's World: a virtual clearinghouse of all things Willie Wiredhand related!
Written By: eceditor
Date Posted: 6/3/2009
Number of Views: 611
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