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Mascot

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Here it is shown how the leprechauns are first flayed and then pulped to be turned into the marshmallows. Off to the side are waist-high piles of abandoned little green hats that will be shipped back to Ireland under international treaty.
"Am I the only one who finds this a little bit creepy?" I ask aloud. Elayne ignores me.
"You can have your picture taken and put on a box of Wheaties," she says.

"That's insane," I say. "I can't masturbate to a picture of myself. Where are the Mary Lou Retton boxes?"
—The Areas of My Expertise, by "the PC".

A character, animal or animate object (seeEverything Talks) which theoretically represents all that is good and attractive about a product, and which may act as a spokesman for it. Sometimes it may be an anthropomorphized version of the product itself, or of some primary component in it.

Mascots were almost mandatory in the early days of advertising on radio and television, but arefar less common today, probably because of the growing sophistication of the audience coupled with the perception that they are, really, rather silly. Outside of advertising aimed at children and/or breakfast foods, aMascot in a modern commercial is as likely to bea subversion as not.

An exception would be Japan, where everything has a cute mascot nowadays.EVERYTHING.

SeeSeries Mascot for when a character serves as the mascot for a fictional universe rather than a commercial product.

Examples of Mascot include:


Clothes

  • Buster Brown shoes had the early 20th century comic strip character Buster Brown and his dog Tige.
  • The four guys dressed as the fruit from the Fruit of the Loom logo.


Electronics and Software

  • Apple's "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" ads featured Justin Long and John Hodgman representing the two computers. Their effectiveness was questionable; viewers across OS lines fell in love with the idea (even to the point ofShipping the two characters), but among those who didn't adore it the general consensus seemed to be that the "Mac" character is vastly less appealing than his "out of date" rival. Not to mention that Mac is never invited to a LAN party...
    • It probably didn't help matters much that in real life, John Hodgman is actually a very friendly, charismatic man.
    • The Apple adverts in Britain featured David Mitchell and Robert Webb as the PC and the Mac respectively. They have been quite unpopular, and have raised questions about the duo's credibility. Not least because, like the US adverts, while Webb is the ostentatiously cool character, Mitchell generally comes across as the more down-to-earth and likeable (this is despite him often playing the role of an unapologetic quasi-intellectual). While hostingHave I Got News for You, Webb explained to Ian that he had played the smug unbearable one whose product you were meant to buy, while Mitchell had all the fun lines and he was meant to be despised. He described it as a 'confused campaign'.
  • Most video game companies use a character from one of their franchises as a mascot; Nintendo hasMario, SEGA hasSonic the Hedgehog, Capcom hasMega Man, SNK has Terry Bogard, etc.
    • Before 1991, SNK had the now pretty much unknownG-Mantle.
    • In Japan, Sega actually had a second mascot specifically for the Saturn: Segata Sanshiro, aBadass martial artist who would beat up people for not playing the Saturn. He eventually got his own video game, which was the last first-party game released for the Saturn.
      • Capcom and Sega's former mascots includeCaptainCommando and Alex Kidd, respectively.Ryu can also be considered a mascot for Capcom due to being quite recognizable and appearing in almost all of their crossover games (he also predatesMega Man by a few months).
    • Atlus uses Jack Frost and his brothers fromShin Megami Tensei.
  • Fictional example: "Vault Boy", the wavy-haired boy in the vault-dweller jumpsuit who serves as the smiling figurehead for Vault-Tec inFallout. Fans call him "Fallout Boy" (no relation to the band orThe Simpsons), and he's come to serve as a mascot for the game series, as well.
    • Not to be confused (although he often have been, even the developers ofFallout Tactics made this mistake) with "Pip-Boy", who is the redheaded pixie in the yellow and orange spacesuit, visible on the logo of the Pipboy 2000.
  • The Companion Cube forPortal.Portal 2 uses Atlas and P-Body, the robots from the game's co-op mode.
    • Valve have also used other characters as mascots, with the Heavy Weapons Guy or the Soldier representingTeam Fortress 2. The announcement for the Steam platform coming to the Mac used one ofPortal'siPod-esque turrets to resemble the Mac and the Engineer's solidly mechanical turret fromTF2 for the PC.
  • Free Software Mascots are listedhere. the best-known are OS mascots:
    • Linux (kernel) - Tux the yellow-beaked penguin.
    • GNU - GNU (not as much Gnu, as Wildebeest or Ibex, but whatever), usually only the horned head is shown.
    • BSD - Beastie (be-es-di, see?), alittle red daemon with pitchfork.
    • OpenBSD - Puffy the pufferfish.
    • Representing the web browser Firefox, Mozilla has the icon of a fox (name unknown) with the flaming tail curled around a globe, andFoxkeh is the mascot of Firefox Promotions. TheRidiculously Cute Critter doesn't come much cuter. There are also a few unofficial ones.
  • Pikachu, appearing in nearly every episode of thePokémon anime, andappearingineverygameofthePokémon series.

Food and Drink

  • One of the most famous and longest-lived is Miss Chiquita Banana, for the United Fruit Company (Later United Brands, and now Chiquita Brands Intl.). Based loosely on Carmen Miranda, she dates back to 1945.
  • Morris the Cat for 9 Lives cat food.
  • Mrs. Butterworth, formerly a borderline racist Southern Mammy, is now always presented as an animated humanoid syrup bottle.
  • Elsie the Cow for Borden (And Elmer the Bull, the mascot of Elmer's Glue, which is manufactured by a different part of the same conglomerate).
  • Charlie the Tuna for Starkist.
  • Possibly the earliest subverted mascot would be Big Fig for Nabisco's Fig Newton cookies in the 1970s.
  • Aunt Jemima, back in the early 20th century, was an African-American slave with a kerchief on her head. After the Black Rights movement in the 1960s, she was transformed into a middle-class African-American housewife.
    • But Uncle Ben, on the rice packages, still looks pretty much the way he did at the beginning. So does Rastus, the waiter on the Cream of Wheat box.
  • Colonel Sanders, for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Mind you, Harland Sanders was a real person, the founder of KFC (though he served in the military, having received the title from the state of Kentucky for his achievements as a restaurateur and kept it as a means of self-promotion), and at times attained quasi-heroic status in Kentucky. Opinions on his animated, wise-cracking, dancing doppleganger are mixed.
    • Pepsico commercials in the 1990s gave him alight saber and teamed him up with Wendy from Wendy's (armed with ablaster) and the Taco Bell chihuahua. When they found themselves surrounded by enemy combat droids, the chihuahua turned to Colonel Sanders and said, "You're areal colonel, right?"
  • Companies like General Mills and Kellogg's tend to have a mascot for each of their brands of breakfast cereals, some of whom spend their lives chasing aCereal Vice Reward. A few examples:
    • The Trix Rabbit, who had to put up with almost 40 years ofpunk kids denying him Trix Cereal."Silly Rabbit, Trix are for Kids"
      • Funny thing: The one time the rabbit actually tries to purchase trix legally, we getthis.
      • Given their shape and color, it's a good thing the Rabbit wasn't the mascot for Cocoa Puffs....
    • Tony the Tiger for Frosted Flakes (Frosties in the UK). "They're Grrreat!"
    • Coco the Monkey for Cocoa Krispies (Has become an outreach of the Rice Krispies franchise, so its mascot(s) have become...)
    • Snap, Crackle, and Pop for Rice Krispies.
      • Though Coco still lives on in some countries like Japan, where he's the mascot for Coco's Chokowa (basically a cocoa version of Froot Loops).
    • Lucky the Leprechaun, who desperately tries to keep his Lucky Charms out of the hands of his relentless pursuers.
    • Sonny the Cuckoo Bird, a recovering Cocoa Puffs addict who's always being tempted by cruel kids to give in to his addiction.
    • Toucan Sam for Froot Loops.
    • Buzzbee the Honey Nut Cheerios bee.
    • Cap'n Crunch for the cereal of the same name.
      • For a while, the various Cap'n Crunch cereals had their own mascots: Smedley the Elephant for Cap'n Crunch's Peanut Butter Cereal (now Peanut Butter Crunch), the Crunchberry Beast for Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries, Wilma the Winsome White Whale for Vanilly Crunch, and the pirate Jean LaFoote for Cinnamon Crunch.
    • Loopy the Bee for Honey Loops.
    • Officer Crumb, the Cookie Crook, and Chip for Cookie Crisp. Their shtick was that the Cookie Crook tried to steal the cereal, but his dog Chip for whatever reason was trained to howl "Coooooookie Crisp!" when he smelled the stuff, alerting Officer Crumb in the process. (Only Chip is still around, and he's changed from a dog into awolf. Not sure if he even howls anymore.)
      • There was also Jarvis the Wizard who got replaced by Cookie Crook & Officer Crumb, and Jarvis even had one commercialalongside Cookie Crook so there is a linear progression from Jarvis to Cookie Crook & Officer Crumb to Chip the Dog to Chip the Wolf. That said Cookie Crisp seems toBrother Chuck their mascots on a regular basis.
    • Bob, Quienno, and Wendell for Cinnamon Toast Crunch (Only Wendell is still around).
    • The competitive Apple and Cinnamon Stick for Apple Jacks.
    • Fred and Barney fromThe Flintstones for Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles (Also, Snagglepuss was the Cocoa Krispies mascot at one time).
    • Sugar Bear for Super Sugar Crisp (now called Super Golden Crisp). At the end ofThe Seventies, sugar gained a reputation not unlike arsenic or Zyklon B, so the word "sugar" wasdropped from the names of all major cereal brands in the United States (Sugar Frosted Flakes became Frosted Flakes, Sugar Smacks became Honey Smacks, Sugar Pops became Sugar Corn Pops and then Corn Pops, etc.). But what do you do when your mascot has "Sugar" for his first name? Why, you emphasize the "Super" in the cereal's name instead, by having him transform intoSuper Bear—a full sized grizzly bear with an angry expression and teeth and claws. Needless to say, this wasn't the best image to associate with a product aimed at young easily-frightened children, and Super Bear quicklyregained Sugar Bear's teddy-bear-like face before being dropped entirely.
      • In the earliest years (and still is in Canada), the cereal was just called "Sugar Crisp". It got the "Super" added to its name when they added vitamin fortification.
    • And who can ever forget Count Chocula, Frankenberry, Fruit Brute et al. from their namesake cereals?
      • Fruit Brute was later replaced by Fruity Yummy Mummy, perhaps because General Mills thought a decaying Egyptian corpse coming to life to fulfill an ancient curse is less intimidating than a werewolf.
    • All of these characters have been given their own webcomic,Breakfast of the Gods. Be warned: it's pretty violent.
      • The knock-off brand Malt-o-Meal has the kangaroos Blue and Lil' Oaty.
    • The slightly terrifying Hunger used to be the mascot for Shreddies, on the basis that it "kept hunger locked up...till lunch". Nowadays they use a group of old ladies who are knitting the cereal.
  • Slightly creepily, Felix (cat) for Felix (cat food). Slogan: "Cats like Felix... like Felix."
  • The creepy, silentBurger King, who shows up in the most random places (like your bed) to give people BK food (Actually asubversion of an earlier version of the King, who was played straight as a cheerful kids' mascot a la Ronald McDonald). He talked, too.
  • Applebee's had a talking apple voiced by Wanda Sykes Hall. The character was discontinued after new owners took over.
  • Fast food chain Jack in the Box has Jack, a man with a clown-head who is both mascot andKayfabe CEO of the company. Like the King, Jack is a subversion of an earlier mascot, a clown-head which stood atop the original Jack in the Box restaurant and which appeared on their drive-thru menus for many years. The ad campaign featuring Jack has run continuously since 1995, making it one of the longest-running in history.
  • Kool-Aid Man.Ooohhh yeeeeeaaaaaahh!
  • Round Table, a pizza place, has a knight in full-body armour, complete with pointy face-guard.
  • There was a brand of cat food called "Kattomeat" and they started advertising it with a white tomcat called "Arthur"...became such a good mascot that not many months later they had to rename the catfood "Arthur's".
  • Ronald McDonald has gone pretty much un-subverted to this day thanks to becoming part of the greater American pop-cultural landscape.
    • Save for a brief period in the mid '90s where he was depicted engaging in such activities as clubbing and playing golf as part of the ad campaign for the execrable "Arch Deluxe" burger (a "sandwich for 'adults'," as demonstrated by ads showing kids recoiling in disgust;surely the best way to convince someone to eat one).
    • InThe Seventies and part ofThe Eighties, McDonalds had a whole army of mascots in McDonaldland. There was Mayor McCheese, the Grimace (who, likeGodzilla, started as a bad guy but quickly became a good guy), the Hamburglar, Big Mac (the cop who chased the Hamburglar down), the French Fry Goblins (who bear an eerie resemblance to the ghosts inPac-Man, although the French Fry Goblins came earlier), an orange juice tree, Birdie the bird, and a host of other minor players.
  • Weight Watchers has Hungry, an furry orange monster that constantly tempts you to eat junk food and thus ruin your diet.
  • Little Caesars.
  • The Chik-fil-A cows, exhorting people to "Eet Mor Chikin".
  • Captain Birdseye, face of Birdseye frozen foods.
  • Similarly, the Jolly Green Giant for Green Giant frozen and canned vegetables. Ho ho ho!
  • Quizno's submarine sandwich restaurant had horribly animated, screechy voiced rat thingies from the that sang about loving their subs, that they are toasted, and that they have a pepper bar.
  • Twinkie the Kid for Hostess Twinkies (duh), before he was relegated to package duty only.
    • They also had Captain Cupcake for Hostess Cupcakes and Fruit Pie The Magician for Hostess Fruit Pies.
  • In Japan, Pepsi had anIron Butt Monkey mascot in form ofPEPSI-MAAAAAANNNN!!!!
  • Milky Bar had The Milky Bar Kid, who was actually played by a number of children over the years. "The Milky Bars are on me!"
  • The M&M's Spokescandies. Oddly enough, since 1999 there were only five of them (Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, and Orange) when the standard color mix includes six (with brown being the sixth color). They have finally rectified this in 2012, so the spokescandies finally match up with the color mix.
    • Though this happened because each of the five was one of the M&M's types (Red is milk chocolate, Yellow is peanut, Blue is almond, Green is peanut butter, and Orange is crispy and pretzel)... meaning Brown is only there to complete the set.
  • Never Say No to Panda: The Panda in the Panda Cheese commercials.

Household Products

  • Mister Clean for the cleaner of the same name. Bonus points if you can identify the piece of jewelry he wears and where on his body: The answerhe wears an earring on his left ear.
  • The Energizer Bunny, and his cousin in the UK, who works for Duracell.
  • The Scrubbing Bubbles, for Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner (originally named Dow Bathroom Cleaner).
  • Probably before anyone's time here, Alka-Seltzer was represented by a walking, talking antacid (in black and white, no less) named "Speedy Alka-Seltzer." (The voice was reminiscent of Beany in theBeany and Cecil cartoons from the 1940s & 1950s.) An author on the subject of commercials, in a book called "Down the Tube" noted that Speedy was so gay, that the new ad company who got rid of him did it so fast it must have been because he was caught soliciting a cop in a bus station mens' room.
    • The voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer was Dick Beals, a little person who dubbed kids voices and worked in voice-overs in cartoons.
    • They have recently (very recently) brought him back, this time played by Debi Derryberry fromZatch Bell andThe Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
  • Michelin tires are hawked by Bibendum, a strange white bulbous fellow who looks like a cross between the Mummy and the Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man.


Insurance Companies

  • GEICO has three mascots:
    • Their British-accented gecko, who began with commercials stressing the difference pronunciations of "GEICO" and "gecko."
    • A bunch of pissed off Neanderthals who didn't like the slogan, "So easy, a caveman can do it!" The writers of the ads attempted to create a sitcom from those Neanderthals. Thankfully, it bombed. Especially thankful is Geico, which could not run ads with the characters during the series' run.
    • Kash, the pile of money with googly eyes and his own theme song has also been slowly adapted into a third(!) mascot for Geico.
  • The duck that quacks, "AFLAC!"
  • Flo the checkout girl in the Progressive Insurance commercials.
  • Erin Esurance, a pink-hairedAction Girl in aSpy Catsuit, who hawked Esurance. Now retired due to becoming a magnet for cheesecake pictures andfanporn. Also made aguest appearance onWho Wants to Be a Superhero?!
  • Churchill, the little nodding dog mascot of Churchill Insurance. All together now: "OH YES!!"
  • The General, for The General Car Insurance.
  • Eastwood Insurance had a gunslinger mascot imitatingClint Eastwood.
  • Alexander Orlov, spokesmeerkat for Compare The Market dot com. Fromthis original spot, a vast merchandising empire was spawned...


Media


Music


Sports

  • The San Diego Chicken was originally a mascot for a local radio station. He single handedly created the profession of sports mascots. He is now the patron saint of all sports mascots.
    • The Army mule and the Navy goat. These sports mascots date back at least 100 years, and other college teams had mascots as well, such as the Yale bulldog and "Bucky Badger".
    • Pro teams with mascots, however, were more or less unheard of until the Famous Chicken (as he's now known, presumably because he's no longer tied to San Diego and has become a freelance mascot...I think he appeared in aGymboree tape I had as a toddler) came about.
  • Several colleges use live animals as mascots in addition to the fake ones:
    • Uga the bulldog at U of Georgia.
    • Tusk the pig at U of Arkansas.
    • Bevo the Texas longhorn at U of Texas.
    • Smokey the coonhound at U of Tennessee.
    • Jack the Bulldog at Georgetown U.
    • Peruna the pony at SMU.
  • The University of Oregon managed to work a deal with Disney to useDonald Duck as their mascot.
  • Major League Baseball has a bunch of mascots but the most famous are The Phillie Phanatic, Wally the Green Monster (Red Sox), Mariner Moose, the Racing Sausages (Milwaukee), the Racing Presidents (Washington), Mr. Met, Billy the Marlin, and the Pirate Parrot. And then there was also once Youppi! the Expos mascot who is now currently a mascot for the Canadiens.
  • Gainer the gopher, the riders mascot!
  • Scottishassociation football has a few. Most of them are ignored except Broxi Bear for Glasgow Rangers and Hoopy the Huddle Hound for Celtic.
  • High school football in Texas -where it is a major religion- gives us mascots such as the Hamlin Pied Pipers (yes, as in the German folk tale) and the Winters Blizzards.

Other

  • Honda has Mr. Opportunity (voiced byRob Paulsen) for their yearly Clearance.
  • The Pep Boys, Manny, Moe and Jack, for the automotive parts retailer of the same name (including the character names).
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Mascot?oldid=1946909"
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