Charlie the Tuna earned a new catchphrase. Spam spawned Sir Can-A-Lot. M&M's Ms. Brown runs her own Pandora channel. And Captain Morgan made his TV debut.

Brand mascots are rebounding as marketers redeploy old characters in new ways, create fresh ones from scratch and use digital media to spin out rich storylines not possible in the past, when critters and cartoon characters were pretty much confined to TV.

While it might be too early to declare a full-fledged mascot revival, brand characters are undoubtedly regaining attention.