An established cartoon character who is hired to endorse a product, a spokestoon should not be equated with a cartoon character invented specifically to give identity to a product, such as the Michelin Man, Speedy Alka-Seltzer or the Pillsbury Doughboy. For these and more, see List of advertising characters.

When the United States entered World War II, well-known celebrities already highly placed in American popular culture, such as Donald Duck and Bugs Bunny, joined the war effort, donating their highly visible images for patriotic and informative cartoons. Bambi was the precursor of Smokey, loaned by Walt Disney for one year (1943) to the US Forest Service.

Since then, many high-profile celebrity toons have turned their skills to corporate product placement. Though fast food franchises have used gimmicks to tie-in temporarily with current releases of animated features since the 1950s, a few toons have become more permanently associated with a product or service offered by corporate culture and may be considered genuine spokestoons.

Among these spokestoons and the products they are identified with:

• Buster Brown and Tige for Buster Brown shoes
• Dennis the Menace for Dairy Queen
• Donald Duck for Donald Duck orange juice
• Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble for Post's Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles cereals
• Little Lulu for Kleenex
• Peanuts characters for the Ford Falcon car, Dolly Madison snacks, and Metropolitan Life Insurance
• Pogo for Earth Day
• The Road Runner for Time Warner's Road Runner Internet service
• Rocky and Bullwinkle characters for Family Fun Center
• The Simpsons characters for Butterfinger candy bars
• Underdog characters for Family Fun Center