If you have shopped for paper towels in the past few years you may have noticed someone new in the aisle. In 2004 Brawny Paper Towels decided to change their spokes character to the plaid wearing “new” Brawny Man (pictured above right). Everyone knows the denim shirt wearing, Chuck Norris-esque Brawny Man (pictured above left) that has graced their packaging for 30 years. Why the change?

Denim may have been okay in the 70’s but perceptions have changed; today plaid is king. Think about it, how often to you see a Denim Dan or Canadian Tuxedo walking down the street and quickly nudge a friend or even a strange to share a chuckle.

Georgia Pacific, makers of Brawny Paper Towels’ VP of Marketing, Jim Phillips, had this to say on the change. “We think it is for the better to go with the Plaid Brawny Man. It was really a no brainer, Denim or Plaid? You don’t need a degree in rocket science to know you choose Plaid. Sure Jay Leno and Chuck Norris may like the old Brawny Man for obvious reasons (in his off time Leno always wears a denim shirt). We spent years and millions of dollars trying to find what consumers wanted; more absorption? more sheets per roll? larger sheets? In all of our focus groups the result was unanimous; a Brawny Man in Plaid.”

This is not the first time the Brawny Man wore plaid. Originally he wore plaid shirt (pictured right) similar to that of the current Brawny Man but the PMRC (the group responsible to parental advisory labels on albums) felt it was too controversial. Yes, controversial. Why the controversy over plaid, that is still a mystery to us.