Liberty Mutual’s LiMu Emu recently topped a study’s list of the best brand mascots in the insurance industry.
But its competition, Progressive’s Flo and Allstate’s Mayhem, put up a good fight, proving that insurance companies are ahead of the marketing curve.
The time of Toomgis
There’s a surprising trend in advertising, per a recent Digiday report: Everyone’s using mascots again.
Popular characters like Chester Cheetah never went away (though he is British these days), but more and more companies are selling themselves with a mascot:
- The Duolingo owl is the modern gold standard, as evidenced by the success of his recent death.
- McDonald’s introduced Grimace’s birthday shake in 2023, spawning a weird Gen Z meme.
- The Pop-Tarts Bowl’s deranged mascot gimmick featured a giant Pop-Tart being lowered into a toaster and devoured.
Meanwhile, Cava has been pushing a pita chip named Peter Chip, Hi-Chew has the “ambiguous” Chewbie, and Domino’s has the “fully sentient” Mac Scott.
Those may sound terrible, but that’s likely on purpose. Remember Toomgis? Ampm’s mascot was a pile of junk food and he was great.
But there’s a serious reason…
… why brands might want to embrace a big, stupid character instead of a traditional spokesperson.
- Digiday points out that mascots can avoid politics in a way real people can’t (Gritty aside).
- Which, unfortunately, is particularly wise in this prickly political climate.
We just hope these new mascots remember the story of fake PlayStation executive Kevin Butler, who was sued after playing a Nintendo Wii in a Bridgestone Tires ad.
