The Kool-Aid Man (sometimes referred to as the Kool-Aid Guy, Captain Kool-Aid, or Big Thirst, and originally as Pitcher Man) is the official mascot for Kool-Aid, a brand of flavored drink mix. The character has appeared on television and in print advertising as a fun-loving, gigantic, and joyful anthropomorphic pitcher filled with the original flavor of Kool-Aid which was Cherry Kool-Aid. He is typically featured answering the call of children by smashing through walls or furnishings and then holding a pitcher filled with Kool-Aid while saying his catchphrase, "Oh, yeah!" He had a comic series produced by Marvel Entertainment where he fought villains known as "Thirsties" and even fought a man engulfed in fire named Scorch.
History
The first version of Kool-Aid Man, "the Pitcher Man", was created on July 10, 1954. Marvin Potts, an art director for a New York advertising agency, was hired by General Foods to create an image that would accompany the slogan "A 5-cent package makes two quarts". Inspired by watching his young son draw smiley faces on a frosted window, Potts created the Pitcher Man, a glass pitcher with a wide smile emblazoned on its side and filled with Kool-Aid. It was one of several designs he created, but the only one that stuck, and General Foods began to use the Pitcher Man in all of its advertisements. The character's face was sometimes animated in synchronization with the jingle.[2][3]