Chicago's Leo Burnett Co. first created Charlie the Tuna in 1961. He's one of the few mascots truly indicative of the times in which he appeared. With his beret and glasses, Charlie was a hep cat, a beatnik, a far-out kinda underwater hustler, looking for an easy inroad with America's premier potted meat company. And he helped Starkist take the canned fish market to the next level, even as they continually rejected him as a potential canned catch.

"Sorry Charlie. Starkist doesn't want tuna with good taste. Starkist wants tuna that tastes good," the voiceover would intone, as Charlie tried to convince the Starkist honchos to "hire" him on the grounds of his impeccable class and fashion sense.

In the decade following his inception, Charlie appeared in over 85 commercials and guest shots, making him one of the most recognizable ad mascots of the '60s and '70s. He faded from view during the '80s, but reemerged in the '90s, with the introduction of Starkist's "tuna pouches"--vacuum-packed bags of tuna considered to be a fresher alternative to the canned component. With his resurfacing, Charlie received a slight makeover. No longer was he a beatnik-like sophisticate. In fact, the year's mellowed his craggy cool and animators even slimmed him down, to indicate the health benefits of tuna.

Do we love Charlie the Tuna any less now than we did in his hep cat days? You be the judge.

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