Let’s consider if it happened in “our” world and not linger on the whole ghost/afterlife complications, and ignore everything that happens in the future movies, what would happen to the Stay Puft corporation after their mascot was last seen rampaging around New York City?
Would they have kept their mascot claiming this was all free publicity, would they quietly replace the mascot, would they actually fully rename and rebrand like Aunt Jemima did because of public outcry, or would the entire brand be sued out of existence for all the people that were hurt/killed by the mascot on its rampage?
I’m no big-city lawyer, but I don’t think I could see how anyone could prove in a court of law that Stay-Puft Inc. was legally responsible for acts committed by the avatar of an Elder God that happened to resemble their trademark. Seems like a force majeure issue to me.
True, but the way they seem to forget about ghosts in the second movie makes me think they must’ve had some cover-story. And the company doing some sort of promotional stunt would be a pretty obvious one to go for.
@RickJay, even if no one died, I do believe the marshmallow fell apart and rained down on everyone, so there’s still the issue of damage.
Considering that sales of Corona beer are up significantly the past year and a half, I’d guess that the Say-Puft Marshmallow Company would be doing just fine.
At the very least, they deflect the blame to him (reasonably; it was his fault, not theirs, that a gigantic version of their mascot went on a rampage).
Googling “corona beer sales” gets me headlines that mostly say that sales are up, in spite or, or because of the name. The only headlines that indicate a downward trend are from very early on, like Feb and March of 2020.
And I don’t think it was so much “Dumb Americans”, as simply a normal reaction to something that reminds you of something unpleasant.
If you did a controlled study, and I’m not sure exactly how you would, I would hypothesize that a person’s average consumption of “Granny Smith” apples would go down for a time after their grandmother passes away.
Not because they confuse the apples with their grandmother, but because the name brings up painful emotions.
Which frankly dampened my appreciation for the sequel. I hate that “we-forget-it-ever-happened” trope that sequels seem rife with. Or TV series like the early 90’s War of the Worlds.
