Buddy Lee was an

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

for Lee Jeans. The

doll A doll is a physical model, model typically of a human or humanoid character, often used as a toy for children. Dolls have also been used in traditional religious rituals throughout the world. Traditional dolls made of materials such as clay and ...

, a promotional item for the company from 1920 to 1962, was brought back as the star of

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

for the company's Lee Dungarees line from 1998 until the mid-2000s.

Early years

Sales manager Chester Reynolds, later Lee's board president, came up with the idea of using a doll to "model" miniature versions of the company's clothes for store displays. The 12½-inch composition dolls first appeared in the windows of

Dayton's Dayton's was an American department store chain founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1902 by George Draper Dayton. It operated several local high-end department stores throughout Minnesota and the Upper Midwest for almost 100 years. Although i ...

flagship store on

Nicollet Mall Nicollet Mall ( ) is a twelve-block portion of Nicollet Avenue running through Downtown Minneapolis, Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is a shopping and dining district of the city, and also a pedestrian mall and transit mall. A ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, then were used at stores nationwide. Lee encouraged stores to sell the dolls after the displays were taken down, and later provided the dolls for retail sale, including versions dressed as a cowboy,

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

deliveryman,

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

worker and gas station attendant. Starting in 1949, Buddy Lee was produced as a 13-inch hard plastic doll. Although female versions of the so-called Betty Lee doll surface from time to time, there was no official Betty Lee doll ever made by the H. D. Lee Company; they never made any female doll at all. These dolls instead are composition carnival dolls (term used by collectors – dolls sold at carnivals as prizes) that look similar to the Buddy Lee doll. This information is direct from the historian who researched the Lee company archives in 2008 for a special Lee company function on the Buddy Lee dol

The Buddy Lee dolls were discontinued in 1962 because they were no longer profitable. By then, Buddy Lee had become the second-highest-selling doll in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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Television advertising

In 1998, ad agency Fallon Worldwide, Fallon McElligott brought back the doll, along with the 1940s Lee tagline "Can't Bust 'Em," to promote the Lee Dungarees line, aimed at 17- to 22-year-old males. The main campaign was preceded by

guerrilla marketing Guerrilla marketing is an Advertising, advertisement strategy in which a company uses surprise and/or unconventional interactions in order to promote a Product (business), product or Service (business), service. It is a type of publicity. The ...

techniques, including movie trailer-style teaser spots, unbranded posters of the doll, and a 6-minute

mockumentary A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...

, "The Buddy Lee Story," which was aired in segments during late-night

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

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The 1998 TV spots – "Car," "Twister" and "Parachute" – were directed by

Spike Jonze Adam Spiegel (born October 22, 1969), known professionally as Spike Jonze (), is an American Filmmaking, filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes films, commercials, music videos, skateboard videos and television. Jonze ...

while Phil Morrison helmed the 1999 TV spots: "Actress" co-starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, "Animal Guy" co-starring

Jack Hanna Jack Bushnell Hanna (born January 2, 1947) is an American retired zookeeper and director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Commonly nicknamed "Jungle Jack", he was director of the zoo from 1978 to 1992, and is viewed as largely respons ...

, "Blues Guy" co-starring

Bobby Womack Robert Dwayne Womack ( ; March 4, 1944 – June 27, 2014) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Starting in the early 1950s as the lead singer of his family musical group the Valentinos and as Sam Cooke's backing guitarist, Womack's ...

, "Sergeant" and "Fans". The comedic ads touted the unmoving Buddy Lee as a "Man of Action." The doll was usually presented as a heroic figure who survived all manner of certain doom, prompting his human co-stars to marvel at the durability of his jeans. Three nemeses for Buddy Lee – Curry, Roy, and Super Greg (the latter portrayed by

Sacha Baron Cohen Sacha Noam Baron Cohen ( ; born 13 October 1971) is an English comedian, actor and performance artist. Known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral General Haf ...

). – were introduced in 2000 through Web sites and appeared in three TV spots directed by Fredrik Bon

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090724152651/http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Can-t-bust-em/0,139023166,120108076-1,00.htm , date=2009-07-24 In

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

BattleBots ''BattleBots'' is an American robot combat television series and company. The show is an adaptation of the American Robot Wars competitions hosted in the mid–late 1990s by Marc Thorpe, in which competitors design and operate remote-controlled ...

, Buddy Lee was used in a four-wheel drive robot armored with a sheet metal fire truck, but inside the truck was 1/4" thick aluminum, meaning he was relatively well-protected and known as "Buddy Lee Don't Play in the Street." The following year, Lee Dungarees ads adopted a heroic folk theme song for the doll and the tagline "Be Like Buddy Lee." Besides "Apartment," "Street" and "Suburbia" directed by Ulf Johansson and Mats Lindberg from

Traktor Traktor is DJ software developed by Native Instruments. It is also used as a sub-brand for Native Instruments' associated DJ hardware products. History Traktor was first released in 2000. The initial versions available were ''Traktor DJ'' ...

and "Barbershop" directed by Craig Gillespie, this series also included a special unbranded ad – directed by Fallon art director Harvey Marco and aired on behalf of the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

after the

September 11, 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

– in which the doll sports a rolled-up sleeve, bandage and "I Gave" sticker to promote

blood donation A 'blood donation'' occurs when a person voluntarily has blood drawn and used for transfusions and/or made into biopharmaceutical medications by a process called fractionation (separation of whole blood components). A donation may be of wh ...

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2002's campaign consisting of the TV spots "Cheese" and "Emu" was directed by Dante Ariola while Chris Smith helmed 2003's "Trailer," "The Chase" and "Hall of Mirrors." In November 2004, the doll starred in "Buddy Lee: Guidance Counselor," a Jon Nowak-directed series of three 6-minute sponsored segments on otherwise commercial-free episodes of

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global, through PMN’s MTV Entertainment Group Subdivision. The channel launched initially as an all-music ...

's interactive show ''Control Freak''. Viewers voting online for videos on the show were also asked to choose one of three outcomes for the Buddy Lee segment

In 2005 Buddy Lee was promoted as a

write-in A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...

br>presidential candidate for the 2008 election

References

Lee, Buddy Doll brands Lee, Buddy Lee, Buddy

Early years

Television advertising

Related links

References