…before we get into the cult of Reddy and the story of his battle with a knockoff, Willie Wiredhand, we should talk about why these mascots are important.

It’s funny to laugh at these weird, old animated figures, but they clearly meant something to the companies who used them. They were — first and foremost — effective marketing gimmicks. That should make us wonder: if electricity was so obviously great, as most technologists would contend, why did the utilities have to push it with lame mascots? Wasn’t it just, like, something people wanted?

Well, the investor-owned utilities in the cities and suburbs had a very specific task. They needed to promote electricity demand so they could justify building new plants. That was how they got paid, so they had to get people to abandon other ways of doing work and providing heating and cooling.

Hey now, Reddy wasn’t “lame!” He was just a little dorky.

On that note, here’s BrandlandUSA’s list of America’s Top 20 Advertising Mascots.

See by the unstoppable Draplin at First Monday Trade Days in Canton, Texas.

Although I managed to maneuver the plug’s prongs into the extension’s outlet, a spark of electricity briefly illuminated the night, and I dropped the two cords in alarm without completing the connection. But we didn’t hear them fall to the ground, and I realized that they were linked and hanging somewhere in the darkness before me.

I went groping for them and closed my right hand directly on the bare prongs. A wave of power surged through my body, I saw more light than I had ever seen, and I screamed. Another wave and light. I screamed again. A third time. I screamed and collapsed, breaking the circuit.

Duke University computer scientists are developing a new approach to managing electric power use by computers. Their “Milly Watt” project not only promises to greatly increase the energy efficiency of computers, but alleviate the frustration of computer users who find their laptops or desktops abruptly shutting down because of drained batteries or unwanted “decisions” by the machinesâ power management software.

Electric cooperatives initially wanted to use Reddy Kilowatt as their spokescharacter. Reddy — depicted with a body, arms and legs of jagged red lightning bolts and a round head equipped with a light bulb nose and outlets for ears — had been around since 1926 and was being used by 188 of the nation’s private power companies as of 1951. However, Reddy’s creator — Ashton B. Collins, who had licensed his character to the private utilities — believed that electric cooperatives were “socialistic” because they borrowed money from the federal government. Not only did Collins refuse to let Reddy be associated with cooperatives, he instructed his lawyers to warn NRECA that any rival character cooperatives might develop would infringe on his exclusive trademarks.