As a kid, I remember the Keebler Elve’s commercials quite fondly. At the time I never really understood the connection between the elves and Keebler, but I had no knowledge at that age of a key component of marketing and advertising; branding.

According to the Keebler Brands web site, the Keebler elves (including the main elf himself, Ernie Keebler) are among the most recognized characters in advertising, right up there with Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Bud Light’s Spud MacKenzie.

The elves are supposed to symbolize dedication, generosity and good-naturedness as they work in a hollow tree churning out endless amounts of Uncommonly Good® products, which include mainly snack items like cookies and crackers.

Paul Davidson, author of Consumer Joe, recently blogged about whether or not it’d be better to be a Oompa Loompa or Keebler Elf;

Let me put it to you this way. Would you rather spend each and every day dancing around like a clown, singing songs for stuck-up children on a tour of your bosses’ chocolate facility, constantly bending at the knees (ouch, arthritis!), constantly having to wear weird flourescently-decorated striped M.C. Hammer stretch pants, and singing in rhyme… OR… Would you rather work in a nice little forest, in a great house built into a tree (phat, baby!), and come up with great new and exciting ideas for cookies, crackers and other sweet treats which you, yourself, will always get credit for?

It breaks down this way. Would you rather be a slave or an entrepreneur?

It’s interesting how these little elves are permenantly ingrained in our minds as “do gooders”, the perfect worker, tiny entrepreneurs who do one thing right; creating sugary goodness for sweet-toothed consumption.

I don’t know about you, but every time I pass by a Keebler package sitting there on the shelf I often wonder if a Keebler elf might’ve accidently fallen in, waiting there for me to purchase the box so I can take him home and release him back into the wild to continue his (or her) quest for snack good dominance.