The fruit guys, as they were once known, sang shoe-gazing ballads a la Coldplay, dropped music videos worthy of early MTV and humanized a healthy food group, all in service of hawking modestly priced underwear.
The endearing mascots for Fruit of the Loom—a rotating ensemble of actors who first appeared in TV commercials in the 1970s and at one time included a pre-Oscar winning F. Murray Abraham—were last seen around 2011.
Now they’re back with a 2023 update and a digital-first marketing strategy.
No one, least of all the legacy brand, ever seemed to forget about the fruit guys in their absence, according to Bryse Yonts, director of brand communications.
“Focus groups have been asking about them for the past 11, 12 years,” Yonts told Adweek, noting that the original costumes are enshrined in the company’s archives in Western Kentucky. “We discussed reviving them many times, but we wanted to make sure we did it the right way at the right time.”
‘Modern and relevant’
That approach has involved remaking the group itself, while still leaning into history and nostalgia, and retrofitting the characters for today’s always-connected audiences, particularly Gen Z.
The newly diverse and renamed “fruit people”—an ethnic and gender mix—arrived last week with quirky videos on TikTok. Emma, identified as the “chief TikToker,” joins as a co-star to Apple, Leaf, Green Grape and Purple Grape.
“There’s a lot of equity in these characters, and any competitor would be hard-pressed to mimic or copy that,” Yonts said. “We’ve reshaped them in a way, taking the best parts of our past and making them modern and relevant.”
The reemergence is paying off, Yonts said, with a collective 2.3 million impressions so far. Next up? Instagram and its Reels feature as the brand aims to “find and engage in a meaningful way with consumers who remember these characters and those who don’t know them at all,” Yonts said.