Seth Green Fills Bart Simpson's Shoes for Butterfinger

Nestlé has tapped writer, actor and director Seth Green as the official “Butterfinger mouthpiece” for a new national TV ad campaign and video contest.

The creator of the Cartoon Network’s “Robot Chicken” will be the first celebrity to represent the Butterfinger brand since Bart Simpson’s memorable run ended nearly a decade ago. But while the spokesperson is new, the “Nobody’s gonna lay a finger on my Butterfinger” tagline will again be used in the company’s national TV spots, developed by ad agency Dailey & Associates.

To accompany the familiar tagline, the brand is also running a user-generated video contest in which entrants create one-minute videos answering the question of “How far would you go to protect your Butterfinger bar?” Contestants can visit ProtectYourButterfingerBar.com to enter their videos. Visitors will vote on them. The biggest vote getter wins $25,000 and may have their video aired as a national 15-second spot for the candy bar.

The Nestlé brand, which spent only $125,000 on adverting last year, has beefed up its ad spend considerably in 2009.  It already invested $1.6 million in advertising behind Butterfinger for the first six months of this year, per Nielsen.

The selection of Green, who also voices the character of Chris Griffith on Fox’s “Family Guy,” is an appropriate successor to the last cheeky spokescartoon, said Tricia Bowles of Nestlé confections and snacks, in a statement. “[He] made perfect sense for a brand that honors humor and praises the punch line,. Butterfinger has been a fan and supporter of comedic talent, such as Seth Green for years—as evidenced by our promotions highlighting clever, irreverent humor.”

Green agreed. “I’ve been eating all kinds of Butterfinger candy all my life, so this union seems not only natural, but predestined.”