Monks remain a favored icon for advertisers. From a New York Times article, conveniently reprinted at the Contra Costa Times:
Posted on August 31, 2003 11:28 AM. Filed under: miscellaneous.The men in hoods and robes are marketers' darlings, having starred lately in campaigns for America Online's broadband service, General Mills' Oatmeal Crisp Fruit 'n Cereal Bars and PepsiCo's Pepsi Blue brand. These came after appearances in commercials for companies like IBM, Nintendo and Sony.
"They're lovable," said Len Short, executive vice president for brand marketing at America Online in Dulles, Va., part of AOL Time Warner. In the pantheon of widely appealing stock figures, "you have dogs, babies and monks." he said. "Who hates monks?"
Monk characters recur in advertisements though real monks generally live sequestered in monasteries and often make vows of silence and poverty -- sharing little with the free-spending, hard-charging consumers that marketers seek. But that disparity, according to advertisers and observers of religion and culture, is what makes monks work for advertisers. [continue]