Wednesday, November 13, 2013

November 1950 Reddy Kilowatt ad

It's been a while since I featured our old pal Reddy Kilowatt on this blog, so here's an Ohio Edison ad featuring the electrical sprite that ran during the month of November 1950 in The Lorain Sunday News.

Although Reddy Kilowatt made a brief comeback after his trademark was purchased by Northern States Power Company in 1998, he hasn't been seen since. Northern States Power Company later diversified and changed their name to Xcel Energy; unfortunately, Reddy had no role to play in the new company's advertising.

Finally, I read on this website that apparently Xcel Energy donated 199 boxes of Reddy Kilowatt history to the Smithsonian in 2005. (And here's a link to the Smithsonian's list of the donated materials.)

So it looks like Reddy is officially retired. Here's hoping the Smithsonian assembles a nice retrospective of my favorite advertising mascot.

It's just as well that Reddy is retired, though; he'd be "shocked" to see what has happened to the former lakefront Ohio Edison plant in Lorain!

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