1, 3, 4, 6: COURTESY OF STARKIST; 2: COURTESY OF PORT OF LOS ANGELES; 5: COURTESY OF THE HEINZ HISTORY CENTER SIDEBAR: DIANNA M
CDOUGALL
For the benefit of those unfamiliar with the
phrase (and it can’t be many), “Sorry, Charlie” roughly
translates to: Tough luck, bro. Urban Dictionary
defines it as: “A lack of sympathy. A form of ‘get over
it.’” Today’s kids might not trot out “Sorry, Charlie”
as much as the youth of the 1960s did, but the
mock-pity phrase has made enough of a cultural
impact to have resulted in an official “Sorry Charlie
Day” (April 6), created to recognize “that everyone
gets rejected sometimes.”
Which is actually a nice sentiment. But let the
record reflect: “Sorry, Charlie” all began with a
talking tuna.
We refer to one Charlie the Tuna, spokesfish of
StarKist, who enjoys the distinction of being one of
the best-known brand mascots in history, an icon on
the same footing (finning?) as Mr. Peanut, the Kool-Aid
Man and the Energizer Bunny.
But unlike those famous characters, Charlie, age
58, has never changed his groove. He’s still got that red
hat, the thick black glasses and, heaven help us, that
Brooklyn accent. “The fisherman’s cap, the glasses—
[they’re] back in style,” said Joe Wos, StarKist’s brand
character integrity consultant. “Charlie was a hipster
before [the rest of them], so why change?”
It’s important to mention that Charlie the Tuna
owes his longevity to a tuna brand with equal
longevity. In a sense, one story can’t exist without the
other. Originating as the French Sardine Co. in 1917,
the Los Angeles-based canning operation switched
to tuna around 1942, debuting its tins under the
brand name StarKist. By the late 1950s, StarKist’s
200,000-square-foot plant was the biggest tuna
canning facility on earth. (The boats hauled in so much
tuna, in fact, that in 1957 the company set up a line for
cat food, sold under the name 9Lives.)
But the company was getting keen competition
from Chicken of the Sea, a brand with arguably a
much better name that assuaged Americans’ fears of
eating fish that tasted too, uh, fishy. To make its mark,
StarKist reached out to Leo Burnett which, touting the
tuna that “tastes good,” hatched a mascot who’d riff on
the heteronym: a tuna with good taste.
Thus was born, in 1961, one of the longest-running
routines in commercial history. That is, an aspirational
tuna who, no matter how he spruces himself up,
always gets the same letdown (often delivered by
sidekick Wally): “Sorry, Charlie. StarKist doesn’t
want tuna with good taste. StarKist wants tuna that
tastes good!”
Environmental regulations and keen competition
from Asia ultimately spelled the end of the L.A.
canning plant, and StarKist itself has changed hands
over the years. Heinz bought the brand in 1963,
followed by Del Monte in 2002. South Korean fishing
conglomerate Dongwon Industries took over in 2008.
Yet Charlie’s stayed aboard the whole time. Setting
aside the disquieting fact that Charlie’s life goal is
to get chopped up and served for lunch in a can,
the ever-optimistic fish is still delivering the same
performance—though the program has evolved with
the times. Charlie now hawks StarKist’s Flavor Fresh
Pouches, fully prepared spreads you spoon right onto
the bread. And most recently, he’s played second fish
to actress Candace Cameron Bure, who steals the
spotlight on the red carpet as Charlie tags along: the
wannabe star always waiting for his big break.
Which is fitting. “Charlie has this everyman feel to
him,” Wos said. “He’s a character we can really identify
with. We’re all seeking acceptance.”Smells Fishy Charlie the Tuna might still be smiling in TV
spots, but few executives at the “Big Three” tuna packing
brands (StarKist, Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea) have
reason to grin these days. Never mind that, over the last
three decades, American tuna consumption has plummeted
by over 40%; the brands (which control some 80% of the
segment) are also caught in the government net over a
price-fixing scandal. Last year, StarKist pleaded guilty to
colluding with its competitors to keep prices high—this after
Chicken of the Sea blew the whistle. Earlier this month, an
attorney for StarKist told the Justice Department that the
brand can only afford to pay half of the government’s $100
million fine. Dare we say it? Sorry, Charlie.Fish Tale Croatian
immigrant Martin
Bogdanovich (1)
emigrated to America
and, in 1917, set up
a sardine company
that morphed into the
tuna-canning empire of
StarKist (2). Charlie the
Tuna emerged in 1961
(3) to help differentiate
the brand and, through
the decades, has
scarcely shown his age
(4). The Heinz History
Center celebrated
StarKist’s centennial
in 2017 with loads of
Charlie merch (5). Still
on the air, Charlie now
co-stars with Candace
Cameron Bure (6).ADWEEK 35
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