The Charmin Bears

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About

The Charmin Bears is a collective family of bear character mascots of the Charmin commercials from 1999 to the present day. The characters are designed as red and blue (tan in Canadian commercials) bears that teach kids how to wipe off their dirty butts using toilet paper. Online, the bears have been the subject of ironic memes, parodies and used in image macro memes making fun of their correlation with pooping.

Origin

According to Charmin's website^[1], D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles created The Charmin Bears mascot in Britain and introduced to the United States in 2000. The characters represent a family of five bears, such as Leonard the Bear, who is accompanied by Molly, Bill, Amy and Dylan. (shown below)

MEET THE BEARS MEET THE FAMILY MOLLY, THE MAMA BEAR 1 love pampering AMY, THE MIDDLE BEAR "Same night say Tom DYLAN, THE YOUNGEST BILL, THE OLDEST SON "A lot of kid LEONARD, THE PROUD PAPA

Later on, more bears were added as mascots for other Charmin products^[2]: five blue ones called the "Charmin Ultra Soft Family" and five red ones called the "Charmin Ultra Strong Family". (shown below)

DON'T JUST GET CLEAN GET CHARMIN CLEAN Charmin Ultra Soft Family Charmin Ultra Strong Family

Spread

Online, Charmin commercials featuring the bear mascots have been shared since 2008. For example, on June 11th, 2008,
YouTube^[3] user @GameEnthus posted a commercial featuring the "Charmin Ultra Strong Family" (shown below, left), in which the mother bear is trying to clean her cub's butt, amassing roughly 63,000 views and 62 likes in 16 years. On August 7th, 2008, YouTube^[4] user @wischr shared another Charmin Bears commercial (shown below, right), which received over 338,000 views and 329 likes in 16 years.

The mascots are also featured in memes and jokes on social media. For instance, on June 3rd, 2021, Reddit^[5] user @u/BillyNutBuster posted an image (shown below, left) of the "Charmin Ultra Soft Family" paired with the caption "some random bears on TV: 'Boy we love shitting'", which amassed more than 29,900 upvotes and 185 comments in three years.

On January 20th, 2023, X^[6] user @HacksawIs posted the picture of a brown bear with toilet paper stuck in its butt (shown below, right) paired with the caption "I think one of those Charmin bears was walking around my neighborhood this morning," which received roughly 56 likes and 9 retweets in a year.