- Wendell the Baker for Cinnamon Toast Crunch used to have two other bakers named Bob and Quello/Quienno by some, but they disappeared for reasons unknown around the early '90s, and were never featured again.
- Initially, the premise was that Wendell has wandered off exploring the world, and the other two were searching for him (there was even a "Where's Wendell" contest). But the campaign became a sort of Aborted Arc without a resolution, and eventually, the "temporary" ads featuring only Wendell just became the new normal.
- Wendell himself became subject to the syndrome in recent years as the mascot role shifted to the anthropomorphic pieces of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.
- McDonaldland and the vast cast of characters who once existed side-by-side with Ronald McDonald in McDonald's commercials were steadily eliminated from the 1970s onward, until only the "core cast" of Ronald, Grimace, Birdie, and Hamburglar remained. For awhile past 2000 now, McDonald's ads have only featured Ronald, and lately even he hasn't been seen terribly often.
- Beginning in the 2010s and 2020s, some of the McDonaldland characters (notably Grimace and Hamburglar) have slowly started resurfacing back into the spotlight. Between 2013 and 2014, there were two live stage shows (Ronald McDonald & Friends Friendship Adventure Show and Musical Show of Ronald McDonald respectively) starring Ronald, Birdie, Grimace, and Hamburglar together performed at a few countries across America. Occasionally Grimace or Hamburglar would make rare live appearances at some local McDonald's restaurants for special events, some of their official social media account (such as McDonald's official TikTok) posts, and sometimes appear during Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade beginning in 2020. Grimace's most recent appearance was in a 2022 Super Bowl commercial
where he was voiced by Ryan Reynolds. He made a fuller comeback in 2023 as part of an anniversary celebration of the character. Complete with purple milkshakes.
- Beginning in the 2010s and 2020s, some of the McDonaldland characters (notably Grimace and Hamburglar) have slowly started resurfacing back into the spotlight. Between 2013 and 2014, there were two live stage shows (Ronald McDonald & Friends Friendship Adventure Show and Musical Show of Ronald McDonald respectively) starring Ronald, Birdie, Grimace, and Hamburglar together performed at a few countries across America. Occasionally Grimace or Hamburglar would make rare live appearances at some local McDonald's restaurants for special events, some of their official social media account (such as McDonald's official TikTok) posts, and sometimes appear during Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade beginning in 2020. Grimace's most recent appearance was in a 2022 Super Bowl commercial
- The Burger King Kingdom was BK's answer to McDonaldland, and featured a colorful cast of characters including the milkshake-craving knight Sir Shake-a-Lot, the picture-framed Burger Thing, the robotic Wizard of Fries, the skeptic Duke of Doubt, and The Burger King himself. They were phased out in favor of the BK Kids' Club in the late '80s, which itself disappeared shortly into the new millennium. The Burger King would get a revival in the Turn of the Millennium, but he was phased out in the early 2010s due to his polarizing reputation, and would permanently be retired in March 2026 due to Burger King shifting more towards customers and families for their marketing.
- The Jack in the Box Bunch was the restaurant's answer to both McDonaldland and the Burger King Kingdom, consisting of Jack the Clown (modeled after the clown heads on their drive-thrus), Onion Ring Thing (a sentient onion ring), Small Fry (a human boy), Hamburgermeister (a elderly German man), Secret Sauce Agent (an agent in charge of protecting the chain's secret sauce), and the Shakes (fuzzy creatures representing their milkshakes). Eventually, only Jack remained until he was literally "fired" in 1980. The restaurant wouldn’t have a mascot until Jack Box in 1994 who, in his initial debut, revealed himself to be the same Jack that was "fired" and had made a recovery "thanks to the miracle of plastic surgery".
- Cookie Crisp cereal had in its early marketing campaigns a bobby who chases after a bandit-masked thief and his bandit-masked dog. Eventually the thief vanished, followed promptly by the bobby, leaving just the dog (still wearing his bandit mask, oddly enough). Now the dog has completely vanished, having been replaced by a wolf named Chip (ironically the same name as the dog that preceded him). Before even the bobby and thief was a wizard who vanished the moment the thief was introduced.
- Erin Esurance was a Cartoon Network-esque super spy who went on dangerous assignments while pitching for the insurance company that created her. Her commercials ran for several months then abruptly stopped without explanation, and she was reduced to a static icon next to the company's name before being dropped completely. Much has been written about the vast, vast quantity of Internet porn she's now in, but the simple truth is most likely that the campaign had run its course and the company couldn't think of any new adventures for her.
- According to Kristin Brewe, then-Director of Brand and Public Relations (via Priceonomics), the porn was the final nail in the coffin. As she put it, "For God's sake, sex and auto-insurance are not two things that go together."
- According to Kristin Brewe, then-Director of Brand and Public Relations (via Priceonomics
- Ned The Incompetent Loan Officer was the face of Ditech in the early-2000's. The commercials would usually show him with a clientnote , attempting to give him/her a home equity loan. He would horribly botch the deal, and the client(s) would call Ditech instead for the loan, leaving him to moan "Lost another loan to Ditech." Around 2003, the character ended up disappearing from Ditech's commercials, though he would go on to make appearances in commercials for auto insurance company Dashers.
- Della and Foxworthy disappeared from the Computer Critters cast after the first commercial.
- After years of appearing on-screen, Toucan Sam's nephews (Puey, Susey, and Louis) stopped appearing in Kellogg's Froot Loops ads after 2015 with their last appearance being in the commercial for Froot Loops Bloopers, not counting a modified version of the first full CGI Froot Loops ad from 2013 which aired in 2016. With Toucan Sam's permanent redesign in 2021 for America and Canada respectively, and Maurice LaMarche's departure from voicing Toucan Sam, any chances of the nephews returning are highly unlikely because of this.
- The infamous Quiznos Spongmonkeys were absent from Quiznos ads shortly after their introduction in 2004, and were later replaced by the "Singimals", which were similar singing animals with jerky PowerPoint animations who sang songs about Quiznos. The Spongmonkeys later returned in a 2023 commercial made as a result of Quiznos themselves' own bankruptcy and closure of many of their sandwich shops.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ChuckCunninghamSyndrome/Advertising
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