Charlie Tuna at the Family Reunion: Priceless

The Mastercard 'Icons' commercial is contemporary classic.


MasterCard - Mascots

I watch it and I feel like a kid again, like a homecoming. All those familiar faces: Count Chocula, Charlie Tuna, the Morton's Salt Girl, Mr. Clean ... It's like consumer kitchen. I remember when we would all gather 'round the dinner table on Sundays. How I loved those home-cooked meals. Poppin' crescent rolls fresh from the oven, green beans hand-picked by Mr. Green -- Jolly, and the Chef's authentic Boyardee family recipe for the main course. Mascots aren't just familiar faces anymore -- they're familial.

Mastercard has to sell credit cards -- in this economy. In a country where most people want to find a house, Mastercard is branding what most people need and are really looking for: a home.

Everyone wants to be at the table with those mascots. They practically raised us. When I was a kid, I had a TV in the kitchen -- it told me what I should put in the pantry to be like everyone else. Mastercard is taking America back to Sunday dinners, when consumption was good; but moving America forward to a time where you don't even have to be at the table -- it's called progress.