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But Why a Penguin?

Penguin Books built on an already strong tradition of branding through cute mascot “media stars” when they introduced their cartoon bird in 1935.

“Choosing a brand character, and specifically a penguin, allowed [Lane] to appropriate the utopian dynamic of mass consumption and mold it to fit his own progressive cultural project,” writes Hornsey. … [T]he cartoon bird provided a vital mechanism through which individual browsers learned to align themselves with its lucratively imagined public sphere. The live specimens at the London Zoo’s Penguin Pond “provoked a range of anthropomorphic media analogies, including soldiers on parade, ‘Dominicans in feathers,’ and ‘self-conscious chorus girls.’”Edward Young captured that humorous similarity.

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