All the mascots mentioned so far have been famous and/or durable enough that most people know who they are, so they may have sucked, but they couldn’t have been that unpopular.
The least popular mascots I can think of are
(1) Sport Marty of SportMart. He’s in the third picture down, under Bupkes the Bagel and next to the talking stomach. A life-sized, human puppet. I think he lasted about a week.
(2) Mr. Delicious of Rax. The 2 Nov 2004 entry of the linked blog actually blames him for the demise of this once-vaunted fast-food chain. He came and went so fast that even in this consumerism-saturated age of ours the above link is one of only two Google hits for “Mr. Delicious” and Rax. Tick-a-dee-dee!
I had forgotten the Puttermans. For a while I refused to buy Duracell batterries because of those damn commercials. They were positively evil. I may have to reinstitue my ban.
Does anybody remember “Face”? He was a disembodied face that was the mascot for Anheuser Busch’s Eagle Snacks when the company challenged Frito-Lay for control of the junk food market in the 90’s. I recall that shortly after Eagle Snacks introduced the “Face” ad campaign, Anheuser Busch pulled the plug on the division and Eagle Snacks’ products suddenly vanished from grocery store snack food aisles across the country. The official explanation for Eagle Snacks abrupt departure was inability to compete with Frito-Lay, but I can’t help but wonder that the creepiness of the “Face” character to people was what really killed Eagle Snacks.
There is a cave in Alabama called Desoto Caverns. Their mascot, named for de Soto of course, is Happy Hernando, a guy in a suit with a big fluffy head who commemorates the man who brought smallpox, Rottweilers, the Inquisition, slavery and forced concubinage to the natives. (Rejected mascots include Smiley Smallpox, Jumpy Jenny-Side and Impy Imperialism.)
The park also has a playhouse in the shape of a galleon that used to prominantly featured on the park’s brochure- it’s “hull” filled with little black children. Apparently when political correctness invaded the south, the die-hards headed for the caves.
It was back in the days when I was still in the DEP (Delayed Enlistment Program). For those of you who don’t know what that means: It means I signed the papers and was just waiting for my day to go to Basic. Still mostly a civilian, but with the odd meeting to go to and stuff you’re strongly suggested to volunteer for.
One of the volunteer things was helping out at an air show at the local municipal airport. I hauled some stuff, helped set up the Air Force booth… and then something bizarre happened. My recruiter had a suit he wanted me to wear. This suit was a big balloon-suit affair, which was kept constantly inflated with a fan unit. All set up, it stood about eight feet tall. But what really got me was what the suit was of.
It was a big-headed Air Force recruiter. Named “Ricky Recruiter”.
I shit you not.
And he wanted me to wear that.
As politely as I could manage, I excused myself from the airshow and got the hell out of there, all the while thinking You don’t own me quite yet. While I still have the smallest shred of dignity, I am not wearing the god damn Ricky Recruiter suit!
I did, however, catch a glimpse of him in the suit.
One day, while the government still owns my body, they may call upon me to wear the Suit. I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of in my life. If ordered to, I’ll go to a godforsaken desert to fight for a cause I don’t believe in for a President who I never voted for. But if they order me to wear a damned Ricky Recruiter suit, well… if it’s all the same to you, sir, I’ll take the Article 15.
My theatre teacher had a little AFLAC duck puppet that, when a button was pressed, would emit 2 AFLAC noises and then a third, drawn out screamed AFLAC. Therefore, when paired with a large, menacing looking frog puppet, the following puppet skit could could be performed.
Whatisit // As he later became known as “Izzy”. – The joke around Atlanta at the time, was that the Marathon course (denoted by a continuous blue stripe that was found on roads downtown) was Izzy’s Blood/Skin leaving a trail behind him, where local Atlantans drug him out and beat him up.
Weren’t the Quizno’s rat things (Sp someting monkeys?) a take off (or rip-off) of a Internet diversion?
-Baby Bob had his own show on CBS for a second right?
Helping Hand (The Betty Crocker Hamburger Helper mascot) can give Oven Mitt the finger. . -But they are both Right hand men, and Handy men by trade, so I guess we should glove them for who they are.
Jay Leno apparently hates the Burger King King,
recently (Month of May) the King has been in many of the “bit” segments right after the dialouge. (I assume that BK is paying for this stragetic hatred however, as the actual King is preasnt in studio, or for the stunts)
I like Mr.Peanut … His character seems to be “perfect”. Then again, the Christmas commercial where as a child he gets his famous hat as a present was one of the best commercials for last december.
No mention of Joe Cammel and Spuds Mckennzie? They where a little before my time (If Joe was indeed ever on TV… Ive seen some later Joe Cammel ads in the 90s)
Then you also had that McDonalds Tonight Moon man thing… who got taken off for ripping off Mack The knife…
Oh, and if you ask me, Poppin Fresh (Pillsbury Dough boy) was the original Pokemon.
I like how the Pets.com Sock Puppet (He more or less gained that as his offical name… its how he signed his autobiography) found work, and was “given a second chance” working for Bar None Auto Loans.
Also, I like how the current Kool-aid Commercial (Mr.Koolaid /Koolaid Man ((The big pitcher with human feet)) ) is on a quiz show… With Mr.Peanut and the Super Golden Crisp Bear… ((I assume they are somehow ““Cousins””
Also, the Tony the Tiger / Corn Flake ads from a few years back… had Tony “Hiding” in the back ground of the commercials.
. -But they are both Right hand men, and Handy men by trade, so I guess we should glove them for who they are.
