Resurrecting Reddy Kilowatt

Interesting. This 1999 newsletter claims the former Northern States Power Company was going to use Reddy as an icon of ecommerce and energy conservation. Clearly, neither of these things happened.

Now, Reddy is ‘under new management’ and on the verge of finding a second career in the age of e-commerce. His new owners at Northern States Power Company (NSP, soon to become Xcel) have devised for him a revised sense of purpose and they’ve begun negotiations with other utilities to spread Reddy’s familiar face across the Internet… The plan is to build a Web site presence based around Reddy, who will be the guide to consumer information about energy efficiency products and services, including an on-line home energy audit.

And here’s a link to the PDF version: (REDDY.pdf).

5 comments

  1. John Y. (Jack) Steel

    My father, Edmund (Ned) H. Steel, Sr. did most of the art work for the Philadelphia Electric Co. from the 1920s through the 1960s, which largely revolved around “Reddy”. I wonder if your archives might contain some of his work.

    Sincerely,

    Jack Steel

  2. Bill

    Hard to say, Jack. My dad has a big collection but most of it is just the collectible/artwork — no credit or artist acknowledgment on the piece itself.

  3. Debi Love

    I have signs, pins, numerous memoribalia that I am trying to get the price value of. Please tell me a good reliable source to gather this information.

    Thanks, Debi LOve

  5. Albert

    Reddy was created in the 1920s by Ashton Collins, Sr., a public-relations executive at the Alabama Power Company. I believe Mr. Collins later created a separate company to market the character, which was eventually licensed to many investor-owned electric utilities.