The term comes from the Hindu concept of the earthly manifestation of a higher being.  Like Ganesh taking the tangible form of an elephant-headed man because mortals couldn't comprehend his true other-worldly nature.

Today it means the web character that digerati create to represent themselves in on-line games and conversations.

In essence, an avatar is a character or personality created to represent or embody another entity.

Leo Burnett and his eponymous agency were famous for creating brand avatars. Tony the Tiger, Charlie the Tuna, the Keebler Elves, the Pillsbury Doughboy and the Marlboro Man all sprang from Burnett's special genius for personifying brands with characters. The Jolly Green Giant was created years before Leo opened his Chicago agency, but Burnett added the character Sprout, who was articulate, and could add more specific copy points than the Giant's "Ho, Ho, Ho" vocabulary would cover.

These Burnett avatars had a couple of powerful advantages: First, they presented the brand in a very positive, likeable, anthropomorphic persona; and since all but the Marlboro Man were animated, they weren't going to get arrested, hold out for more pay or embarrass the brand with inappropriate, on-the-record comments. And even the Marlboro Man was a series of cowboys (and, later, cowboy-looking models) rather than one, identifiable, guy.

That's not to say created spokespeople can't go wrong. Dell was more than a little chagrined by the drug-related legal difficulties of Benjamin Curtis (the guy who said "Dude, you're getting a Dell.) Aunt Jemima may not be quite in tune with the times. Joe Camel was perceived as both sexual (A camel? Be serious!) and an inducement for younger audiences to smoke. And while Uncle Ben's has recently tried to morph a waiter into a CEO, the "Uncle" name is redolent of the slavery era.

But for every misguided camel there are hundreds of avatars working effectively for advertisers. Here are a dozen examples:

• The Maytag Repairman. Despite Maytag's abysmal product quality and reliability record, the lonely repairman has persuaded most folks that Maytag appliances are built like Fort Knox.
• Betty Crocker. An update every twenty years or so keeps this brand icon just current enough.
• Colonel Harlan Sanders. The KFC founder had gone from being a spokesperson to a logo, and he still works.
• Mr. Clean. Both a brand and a spokesperson. (A massively memorable combination). And, in the Vance Packard era in which he was born, a subliminal sex symbol. (Well naturally. He's bald. See our "People" section for fuller explanation.)
• Mr. Whipple. The man is the embodiment of toilet paper. He is individually identifiable, which does leave the door to embarrassment over a morals arrest open, but he did a fantastic job building the Charmin brand.
• Ronald McDonald. A costume, make-up instructions and some directives on behavior (wave, smile) and speech (OK on commercials, but not on personal appearances) bring this national character into every market in America. He's been effective for more than 40 years.
• The Energizer Bunny. The character is memorable, likeable and epitomizes the product claim. It doesn't get a lot better than that.
• The Aflac duck. About to be axed by a clueless advertiser, but an avatar who built a brand with just one quack: "Aflac!"  (Research shows that the duck produced one of the fastest rises to brand recognition in history.)
• The Burger King. We must admit that the reason for this one's success is beyond us, but the results speak for themselves: a clown in a ghoulish plastic head apparently sells burgers.
• The Capital One barbarians. They didn't represent the brand, but, in an interesting twist, the competitive weaknesses the brand was selling against.
• The Hawaiian Punch guy. Not much on product benefit, but the character made it impossible to forget the name.
• Juan Valdez. The embodiment of Colombian Coffee for decades. The mule has personality, too.

Forbes recently published a list of the top 10 avatar "spokescreatures, complete with Q-scores.  Click here.

So what are the common denominators of success?

• Avatars aren't celebrity spokespeople. Celebrities never take on
• the brand identity. Their identity dominates recall.
• The avatar becomes the personality of the product.
• The avatar embodies a benefit.
• The avatar is either obviously linked to the product name or builds
• linkage over time.
• The campaign runs for years, building equity over time.

Any slick agency worth its black t-shirts knows that avatars are hopelessly un-hip. Right down there with jingles.

And any true marketing communications professional knows they can build enormous brand equity and bottom line benefit.

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