Why He-Man and Skeletor Are Back — As Car and Insurance Salesmen
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Cartoon stars have a long tradition of moonlighting in advertising. In their heyday, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble pitched cigarettes on prime time. The Peanuts gang provided a lovable face for insurance giant MetLife. But the Masters of the Universe, along with other children’s characters, have lately resurfaced as part of a nostalgia trend that continues to sweep pop culture. British viewers have seen Scooby-Doo trying to get a mortgage for Halifax Bank and the Muppets promoting bakery brand Warburtons. Meanwhile, popular U.S. shows like “Stranger Things,” “The Goldbergs” and “This Is Us” hark back to earlier decades.
Kids to executives
“Nostalgia sells,” says Christopher Byrne, a toy industry consultant and content director at toy information site Toys, Tots, Pets & More. Given today’s age of fragmented media, “‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe’ is probably one of the last real programs that impacted a generation as a whole,” says Byrne. That means the characters have the power to capture the attention of a particular audience, namely the former 5-to-9-year-old kids who grew up watching.
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