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Reddy Kilowatt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reddy Kilowatt is a cartoon character that acted as corporate spokesman for electricity generation in the United States for some six decades. A stick figure whose body and limbs are made of "lightning-bolt" symbols and whose bulbous head has a light bulb for a nose and sockets for ears, Reddy was created at the Alabama Power Company by Ashton B. Collins Sr. and debuted March 11, 1926. He was subsequently licensed by some 200 electrical companies looking to sell homes on using the relatively new technology. He was featured in a 1947 comic book produced by the studio of Walter Lantz [1].
Reddy Kilowatt was a frequent presence in publicity material until energy conservation replaced energy production as a national goal with the growth of the environmental movement and the OPEC oil embargo. He is now rarely seen.
In 1998, Reddy was bought by Northern States Power Company, which created an entire subsidiary, Reddy Kilowatt Corp., to manage the cartoon.[2] That company later created Reddy Flame, a character promoting natural gas.
Reddy was parodied in an episode of the TV show Roseanne, "That's Our Rosie", in which a doll version was used in a 'faux' commercial for a utilities company that was pitched by Dan and DJ a la the early days of television in the 1950s, when TV shows featured their performers promoting products from the companies that were sponsoring their shows.