I was watching Microsoft’s fall update last week, the Copilot announcement filled with AI demos and discussions about the future of productivity.
Then came the real surprise…
On the screen appeared Mico, Copilot’s new avatar. A soft, shapeshifting orb that reacts to your voice, it was introduced to make artificial intelligence feel a little more human and perhaps build some more trust. The audience seemed impressed enough. But what caught my attention was not Mico itself. It was what happened next.
If you tapped on the avatar a few times, Mico changed form to none other than Clippy. The little paperclip from Microsoft Office, blinking and grinning like it was 1998 again.
Within minutes, social media lit up. Screenshots of Clippy flooded X and TikTok. The Easter egg instantly became bigger news than the new AI features. Microsoft may have unveiled its most advanced Copilot yet, but everyone was talking about a cartoon paperclip. Even I was texting friends and letting my partner know (who, fyi, was equally as excited).
Following the event announcement, I wanted to write a piece on building brand trust with mascots and nostalgia, and my editor shared a Substack article by brand builder Stef Hamerlinck about the rise and fall of 7UP’s mascot in the US (link), Cool Spot. The parallels were similar. Both Clippy and Spot were born from the same idea, that a brand could feel more human if it had a character. Both became icons, and both were eventually retired when their companies decided they had outgrown them. In the UK we had Fido Dido, same story, same sad ending.
The power of a face
“Mascots aren’t childish, they are distinctive assets,” Hamerlinck says in his article. “They trigger memory, emotion, and brand fluency. And the data backs it up. Campaigns using characters or fluent devices outperform others on long-term effectiveness and brand recall.”
"Campaigns using characters or fluent devices outperform others on long-term effectiveness and brand recall"
When Mico turned into Clippy, the internet didn’t just recognize a product feature, they (and myself) remembered a feeling. They remembered the early days of computers, the excitement, the frustration, and the weird charm of having a tiny, animated helper, who, let’s be honest, was more of a hindrance at times. Memory is a powerful thing. Even when we mock something, it still leaves a mark.
