Softening a Starchy Image

A mustachioed little clown with an undersize jacket and oversize trousers to symbolize IBM's first computer aimed at the mass market? That hardly fits IBM's stuffy old image, but when the company needed an advertising campaign for its new personal computer 2 1/2 years ago, it turned to one of the 20th century's most enduring and endearing characters: Charlie Chaplin's Tramp. Says Charles Pankenier, director of communications for the PC: "We were dealing with a whole new audience that never thought of IBM as a part of their lives." Industry insiders estimate that the firm has spent $36 million in one of the largest ad campaigns ever mounted for a personal computer.

Manufacturers of personal computers have been using readily recognizable people for some time to make the slightly intimidating machines seem warmer and more empathetic. Apple has Dick Cavett for its commercials, Texas Instruments recruited Bill Cosby, Commodore has William Shatner, and Atari just hired Alan Alda. None of these living celebrities, however, has had the impact of the Tramp. The character has starred in three widely seen television commercials, plus more than 20 print ads. He has won numerous advertising-industry awards.

Chaplin once explained that he created the character in 1915, after an accidental meeting with a hobo in San Francisco. The Tramp's resurrection was only slightly less serendipitous. IBM's advertising agency, the Madison Avenue firm Lord, Geller, Federico, Einstein, was looking for someone, or something, that would attack the problem of computer fright head on. The agency was talking about using the Muppets or Marcel Marceau, the mime, when, according to Creative Director Thomas Mabley, the idea for the Tramp "sort of walked in and sat down."

Some officials at both the company and the agency were afraid that the floppy character was not in keeping with IBM's starched white-collar image. The question of whether the Tramp represented antitechnology sentiment, as epitomized in the most famous scene from one of Chaplin's best-known movies, Modern Times, was also raised. In the scene, Chaplin gets caught in the giant gears of a factory. But both the agency and IBM eventually concluded that the character, in Pankenier's words, "stands fear of technology on its head and would help the PC open up a new technological world for the non-technician."

The company obtained rights from Bubbles, the Chaplin family company that licenses use of the actor's image, to use the Tramp. To cast the part, the agency interviewed some 40 candidates in New York City and 20 on the West Coast. The winner was 5-ft. 6-in. Billy Scudder, 43, who has been doing Tramp impersonations since 1971. Says he: "Nobody tires of the little Tramp. He creates instant sympathy."

The commercials are elaborate Madison Avenue extravaganzas. In one 60-second spot, which symbolizes the problems of inventory control in a small business, the Tramp stands at the intersection of two assembly lines in a bakery. He comes a cropper when the fast-moving line spews cakes onto the floor after he tries to jam a giant-size one into an economy-size box. Taping the sequence required 30 takes--and 150 layer cakes.

The Tramp campaign has been so successful that it has created a new image for IBM. The firm has always been seen as efficient and reliable, but it has also been regarded as somewhat cold and aloof. The Tramp, with his ever present red rose, has given IBM a human face. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.