Death of an Advertising Icon

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Before the Aflac (NYSE: AFL) Duck, before Wendy's (NYSE: WEN) Dave Thomas ads, even before Church & Dwight's (NYSE: CHD) Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Harry & Louise ads, there was the Maytag repairman.

Known as "Ol' Lonely," his schtick was to be bored, the message of course being that Maytag's machines were so dependable that their repairmen didn't have a whole lot to do. It's a brilliant campaign, and it's been running consistently since 1967. According to the Maytag (NYSE: MYG) website, the Maytag repairman is the longest running real-life advertising character on television.

I wonder if Ronald McDonald is considered "real life"? McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) rolled him out in 1963.

At any rate, this past week we mourn the passing of Gordon Jump, who played the idle Maytag repairman for the last 14 years. Jump, who was 71, died on Monday from pulmonary fibrosis at his home in Southern California. He became synonymous with the character, appearing live at events hosted by Maytag until his retirement earlier this year. Of course, as a member of the Motley Fool discussion boards (free trial required) reminded us, it was Jump's other most famous character, Arthur Carlson of WKRP in Cincinnati where he uttered one of the best television lines ever: "As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."

Companies run some risk when their images are deeply tied to renowned advertising characters. Just recently Wendy's replaced its advertising agency of long-standing, apparently since they had been unable to come up with any new campaigns following Thomas' untimely death in January 2002. But the benefit of having a human (or animatronic duck) face for the public to relate to can be enormous. Maytag's repairman originated in the company's reputation for having dependable machines in the 1950s, but the public's embrace of Jump's character certainly helped perpetuate this impression. Though the company had brought on new actors to replace Jump, he was still THE repairman, the Ol' Lonely Sean Connery, if you will.

What's for sure is that even though he wasn't the last Maytag repairman, this was HIS character, and always will be.