March 10, 1955 Food Center Ad Starring… Sparky?

Here's something kind of interesting for all you advertising buffs.

Sparky (from a 1958 ad)

It's an ad for Jay's Food Center that appeared in the Lorain Journal on March 10, 1955 – 60 years ago tomorrow. It features a meat cleaver-wielding grocer mascot that bears a strong resemblance to Sparky, the mascot of the Sparkle Market chain (shown at left).

The Sparkle Markets chain was organized in 1955. According to the company website, the chain was born when four independent grocers banded together and joined a group of Akron-area independent grocers. Together, they formed the Sparkle Market group and thus were better positioned to compete with the national chains.

Jay's Food Center did become Jay's Sparkle Market by 1957.

Could the freckled cartoon mascot in the ad be the forerunner of Sparky? Perhaps it was indeed an early Sparky with his name scrubbed off his cap so that the Sparkle ad template could be used by grocery stores that had joined the buying group but hadn't officially adopted the Sparkle name yet.