NEW YORK (AP) — Chuck E. Cheese has been given the pink slip.
The
company that operates the chain of children’s pizza restaurants is
retiring the giant rodent’s outdated image — and the man who voiced its
character for nearly two decades. CEC Entertainment Inc. says it plans
to launch a national ad campaign Thursday with a revamped image of Chuck
E. Cheese as a hip, electric-guitar-playing rock star.
It’s just the latest makeover for the 35-year-old mascot, which once was a New Jersey
rat who sometimes carried a cigar.
CEC
Entertainment, based in Irving, Texas, is struggling to revive sales at
its more than 500 pizza restaurants, which offer games, prizes and a
musical variety show. In May, CEC said revenue at its locations open at
least a year fell 4.2 percent in the first quarter and lowered its
outlook for the year.
According to ShowBizPizza.com, a Chuck E.
Cheese fan site, the man who voiced the mascot in restaurants and
commercials since 1993 learned of his replacement only after coming
across "Chuck’s Hot New Single" online and realizing it was sung by
someone else. The fan site late last week published a Facebook post by
Duncan Brannan, the mascot’s former voice.
Brannan could not be
reached for comment. But in the post, he writes that part of his
assignment when he first took on the role was to transform Chuck E.
Cheese from "a joke-telling, sometime off-color New Jersey rat" to a
lovable, mainstream mouse.
He notes that there were various signs
in recent months that suggested he was being pushed out, but that he was
assured by the company that he was still the voice of Chuck E.
The Facebook post was republished by The Dallas Observer this week.
CEC
Entertainment says that Brannan wasn’t fired but that it simply "chose
to utilize new voice talent" for its ad campaign. The company said
Brannan, a freelancer, is still in contract with the company to provide
entertainment in its restaurants.
The new Chuck E. Cheese that
launches this week will be voiced by Jaret Reddick, the lead singer for
the pop-punk bank Bowling for Soup. The Chuck E. Cheese Facebook page
now shows a silhouette of a cartoon mouse playing a guitar.
The
first Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre location opened in 1977 in
San Jose, Calif. According to ShowBizPizza.com, the idea for Chuck E.
came from a generic mascot costume that was acquired by the founder,
Nolan Bushnell, who also co-founded Atari and Pong. Executives
originally considered calling the restaurant "Rick Rat’s Pizza" but a PR

agency figured a rat would be a bad mascot for a pizza chain.
The
name Chuck E. Cheese was selected because it downplayed the mascot’s
species and forced people to smile when they said it, according to the
site.
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Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.