Kroger Ad with Toppie – January 27, 1965

Here's a great full-page Kroger ad that ran in the Journal back on January 27, 1965 – 61 years ago today. As you can see, it features our favorite plaid pachyderm, Toppie, promoting Top Value Stamps.

It's a shame that not many companies utilize mascots to be the friendly, familiar face of their advertising. Newer ones, such as Mr. Mucus (yecch) for Mucinex are largely unappealing and contribute no emotional connection to the brand.  

Mascots that have survived for decades, such as Kellogg's cereal menagerie, have been arbitrarily redesigned so poorly (such as Toucan Sam and Tony the Tiger) that any goodwill or equity that did exist has been extinguished.

Anyway, I look at the 1965 ad above and am still amazed that Kroger – the largest supermarket chain in the country – abandoned our market back in the 1980s. 

Kroger had four locations listed in the 1965 ad: three in Lorain and one in Vermilion (in the South Shore Shopping Center). By 1980, Kroger ads in the Journal listed locations as Lorain, Elyria, Sheffield Lake and Vermilion.

A few years later in April 1983, Vermilion (my current town) was getting ready for its brand new Kroger store.

But only two years later, Kroger scrammed out of the Northeast Ohio market, as shown in this Journal 'Top Stories of the Year" blurb from December 29, 1985.

Today, Toppie is only a pleasant memory for Baby Boomers, and the Kroger Vermilion location is home to Giant Eagle. You can still go Krogering (if you're so inclined) out in Sandusky.