Keep Kool

Color illustration of a large penguin smoking a cigarette with its flippers around an an elephant and a donkey surrounded by white text on a green background 

In 1933 Kool brand cigarettes began using the mascot, “Willie the Penguin.” The popular penguin was used in advertising in newspapers and magazine, as well as goods for the home such as salt and pepper shakers and figurines.

Here Willie is shown between the party mascots of the Democratic and Republican parties. His position and the slogan is a call to people to not take the national election personally. The use of the phrase, “Keep Kool,” instead of the later phrase, “Smoke Kool,” dates the button to either the 1936, 1940, or 1944 elections.