That's exactly what happened when Gritty was launched! I remember that for about 1 day, Philadelphians on social media were like "why did the Flyers launch this weird mascot?" After that day, people outside Philadelphia started making fun of it and Philadelphians started to defend it against foreign enemies. The hometown devotion to the mascot was born.
Philly changed it's mind when the Penguins, on their official twitter, took a shot at Gritty, and Gritty responded back ... “Sleep with one eye open tonight, bird". The threat of pre-emptive violence would earn Philly's esteem forever
Your words about sympathy toward amateurish and imperfect mascots resonated with me and my relationship with indie-games, music and films... I've always thought, that it's because you can easily imagine your buddy showing you something, that he worked hard in his garage over multiple weekends... And you aren't, to say, impressed with the quality of work, but it's endearing to see his efforts, and you are grateful, that he opened up to you with his passion... So many warmth feelings between two of you, looking at that hideous green pepper...
JJ another video you could make would be the history of Cars in America. From the early days of Detroit ruling American car market to German cars gaining popularity, to the huge rise of Japanese cars in the 80s, to the modern era of Tesla,Rivian and Lucid once again being American companies making it largely in America
Being from Michigan we have history classes dedicated to learning about fords factory line. Kinda fail to bring up the antisemitism and that shitty 40 hour a week or else you die thing
To say really everything about this, one would probably need a whole channel or at least a series, but I would definitely like content about this topic from JJ.
I know you focus on American and Canadian culture, but a video on Japanese Mascot culture would be interesting because everything has a mascot there, not just companies and sports teams, even cities have mascots.
@@wolfpackjew California, Texas, and Florida have so many to choose from. I guess for California, it could be the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hollywood sign; for Texas, it could be the Alamo or Longhorn steer; for Florida, it could be the Sun or a palm tree.
My city (Vigo, Spain) has as its unofficial mascot the "Dinoseto", a topiary shaped like a dinosaur. It appeared one day almost by chance in the middle of a roundabout as decoration, but was pulled down the very same day, as it had been placed by mistake, and an uproar took place demanding for it to come back. It was later placed in the middle of one of the city's landmark areas and became an instant hit with visitors and locals alike. Nowadays there's lots of merch with its depiction, a couple of other dino-topiaries have been created and it's now a mascot for some of the city's campaigns.
NC State is actually a good pick to show how what started as a school dog turned into a need for a mascot. Because they are the Wolfpack, State got a real wolf for football games thinking it would be a good idea. Well it turns out wolves are anxious creatures and they would try to hide and cry when crowds would cheer. So enter wolf costumes. - Fun fact: State would actually try numerous times to have a live Wolf mascot in the 1900s but wolves always provided problems until they found “Lobo III” In the 70s. A perfect wolf which fans loved because of the amount of times it howled during games. Where did they find such a crowd friendly wolf? Well it turned out Lobo III was actually a coyote. A discovery that fans accepted until they had a losing football season and turned on the “fake wolf” that other teams would make fun of. State wouldn’t have a another live mascot until 2010. 21st dog breeding allowed for dogs that are social like dogs while looking almost exactly like wolves. This has led to a retirement of the “Lobo” line of live animal mascots and the start of the “Tuffy” line of “wolves” which currently entertain state fans at Carter Finley stadium.
I think it's actually rather fascinating how Mascots have gone from this unambiguous stable of advertising to this very niche practice only used by toy companies or fast food chains. Really shows us how constant criticism of the marketing to kids and a move to be seen as more professional have shifted the way we view them. Although I have to say I actually miss the times when everyone had a mascot. Like you said there's a lot of charm in a quickly drawn cartoon mouse on the side of a local cheese shop or an anthropomorphic pig on a butcher shop window.
Sadly, I think the move away from cartoon mascots has more to do with big companies (especially Disney and McDonalds) trying to ditch the kid friendly image. And instead of doing some introspection on their part, admitting they were marketing too much to kids, they just blame animation as a medium. So their answer was to kill animation and do a hard 180 to making only super edgy live action movies/commercials. And they've been stubbornly sticking with this mentality for over two decades. Even when other companies have released animated mascots/products and it's proven successful. But hey. Far be it from me to want Disney and McDonald's to succeed... Go ahead and keep pushing your bad commercials. I'm lovin' it.
@@Alex-fv2qs Yeah. In just the last year, they've done a 180 and brought out that "adult happy meal" and tried to revive all their old mascots. But even then, they're not really doing it for good reasons. It's blatant nostalgia pandering. As well, they had to change the mascots to have new weird and ugly designs. For reasons I can only theorize over. But I assume it's to again try to disassociate their old mascots from the kiddy image. "Look guys, we brought back all your old favorites. But now they're weird and edgy!" What's even the point trying to appeal to gen x nostalgia by spitting in their face? You got me. But that's how media in the west has been rolling for the last 20 years.
@@maxis2k Yeah, back in my day...haha, i always feel like an old fart in these discussions. not that i disagree, it just comes across as ironic that we complain about older generation and then criticize the knew as soon as our generation is out.
There’s always the fun thing where a company has a mascot who’s always losing (like the Trix Rabbit) or a sort of “anti-mascot” that they use to depict their competitor (like John Hodgman’s PC in those Apple ads) who the public end up feeling sympathy for
In the 80s there was an ad campaign where kids could vote on whether or not the Trix Rabbit would get to finally eat a bowl of Trix. Kids voted that he should get to have some Trix, so there's at least one commercial where he finally gets to have some. I remember one stand-up comedian talking about those "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" commercials, and I agreed with what he said. The "Mac" guy seemed like a hipster douchebag whereas the "PC" guy seems more straightforward and looks like someone who actually knows about computers. Apple users strangely loyal to "their" company than PC users. In college I would always hear from "Mac evangelists", as they would actually call themselves, that Macs don't get viruses and didn't crash all the time. Then one time I was in the school's computer lab, and the Mac I was using crashed while using Adobe Premiere. When I pointed out to one of these people that a Mac just crashed, they said, "no, that was Adobe's fault, so it doesn't count". (In reality, Apple strictly controlled which hardware got to run their OS, whereas anyone could run Windows or even another OS on whatever hardware they wanted, so PCs had more variables to contend with, which could lead to more instabilities, but also more flexibility for their users.) Another person at the school was surprised when I mentioned that I used a Firewire cable to connect a Mini DV camera to a PC. (Yes, this was a really long time ago.) This person, was genuinely surprised (and not making excuses like the previously mentioned person) and thought that only Macs were capable of using Firewire. (Technically, there was some trademark think where only Apple products were allowed to call this interface "Firewire", and everyone else had to use the harder to remember "IEEE 1394" (which I couldn't even remember and had to look up).)
One of the most heartwarming things I ever saw go viral on deviantart was some teen who drew her blue fox fursona offering a bowl of trix to the rabbit. "I just thought he should have it, finally."
JJ you should make a video talking about where the most common English sayings (like "He's got some skeletons in his closet") and how their meanings have changed overtime.
Several years ago there was a controversy in Chicago about a painting called The Last Pancake Breakfast. It was a last supper scene featuring a host of beloved American product mascots with Aunt Jemima presiding. I think it was meant as a commentary on how much we get attached to these icons as real characters.
Actually, mascots are kinda coming back here in Chile. Basically, if your product is healthy enough, or if you state that it’s the “original recipe”, you can add in the mascots.
This might be a bit different than your other mascots, but I love the mascot of Anne of Green Gables for Prince Edward Island. Despite her character not being made to sell anything other than the books about her, the province of P.E.I. has completely adopted her as a mascot. Local brands will put her face on their packaging as a simple way to convey their locality. On top of all the tourist shops that are brimming with dolls and postcards featuring this character. You can even sometimes see someone dressed up as Anne during community events or parades. One of the most interesting thing about this is that it has essentially become a publicly owned mascot. The government does not own her likeness, nor has she ever adorned any official public document. But it is quite clear the role she plays in selling island culture. The fact that her character is a person puts her on a different level than other regional iconography such as the maple leaf or a lighthouse; one that makes her more akin to a mascot than a partiotic symbol.
Well that's basically all that island is know for right? Plus early confedration of Canada stuff and a long bridge that isn't really aesthetically interesting.
Ever since I discovered the idea of Olympic mascots a couple years ago, I found one mascot that I really liked and that is Vučko, the mascot of the Sarajevo'84 Winter Olympics. There is something so simple and graceful about the design of Vučko, he kind of reminds me the classic cartoon characters made by companies like Fleischer & Disney from the 1920s-1940s.
Mexican here. Despite mascots being banned in the packaging of "junk food", we have plenty of them inside and outside of the food industry. Like the supermarket chain Bodega Aurrera having a luchador mom called Mamá Lucha who is "the champion of low prices", or the chain of pharmacies Dr. Simi, who has a old and big doctor as the mascot. You can find someone in a suit of Dr. Simi dancing outside some local, and even in recent years there is a trend to gift plushies of Dr. Simi to touring artists by throwing them into the stage. Back in the food industry, the Bimbo bakery company has the Little Bear Bimbo, a little baker white teddy bear that is quite beloved by the people, and the ice cream chain La Michoacana having a girl in a traditional michoacan dress having an ice cream.
Spanish-speaker here, though not Mexican, but lately I've been seeing tons of memes about Dr. Simi. Also, I found out that the voice actress who voices Mamá Lucha voiced characters like kid Trunks in DBZ and Mokoto Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell
@@MasterGeekMX Us Mexicans. But anyway, I just wanted to point out that having mascots for certain stuff while banning them for children's products isn't hypocritical
An old cereal called Quisp had a weird alien-looking guy with a propeller on his head. There are mascots for public service campaigns as well, like Smoky the Bear for forest fire awareness or the old "Give a hoot, don’t pollute" owl. It’s interesting how we went from animals to all sorts of strange mascots. The Spanish word for pet is "mascota"😀✌️
Most local electric companies for a long time would have mascots (usually a lightning bolt, lightbulb, or firefly) that taught kids about power line safety or reminded adults to call the city before digging in the yard. Those have always fascinated me.
You can actually still get Quisp, but you have to order it online. Re: "the old 'Give a hoot, don’t pollute' owl": That was Woodsy Owl. They redesigned him at one point, changing him from a cute round character to basically a human body with an owl head, which looked terrible. I'm not exactly clear when this new design happened or if they're still using it, but it looks/looked terrible.
@@Annie_Annie__ As a Minnesotan, the one that most readily comes to my mind is Reddy Kilowatt, a cartoon man with a body made of red lightning bolts, and a head with sockets for ears and a light bulb for a nose.
There's a pizza restaurant in Gainesville called Italian Gator, and that weirdly drawn mascot of a gator with a chefs hat and Italian mustache led me to choose them over the competitors more than I care to admit
I don’t know if this counts as a mascot but the current county I live in was the longtime home of Peanuts Creator Charles Schulz. This has lead to the his characters being used as pseudo mascots for various local government institutions, nonprofits, and agencies along with the airport (which uses Snoopy in his flying outfit). You will find various statues of the characters all around the county and a museum dedicated to Schulz as well.
that would be similar to how in Finland, Moomins are everywhere. There are moomin mugs and plates (of course), but also moomin tea, moomin biscuits and moomin juice. Everyone has moomin mugs in their house at the very least. I can't think of an equivalent ubiquitous set of characters from my home country (Australia.) The closest would be Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, who are anthropomorphized gum blossoms, but they're very old fashioned nowadays and certainly aren't ubiquitous to the point of everyone having a piece of snugglepot and cuddlepie merch in their house.
You have no idea how much people love the Buck-ee's mascot, Buck-ee the Beaver here in Texas, I see someone wearing a shirt featuring him almost every single day. People who have driven through or visited Texas have told me that it almost feels like worship with how we even have statues of him.
My school Texas Tech mascot was originally based on the Spanish inspired architecture with a matador as the mascot but changed due to a random newspaper article about the Red uniforms we wore hence becoming the Red Raiders. Though we still use the Matador for everything
jeez man, I dunno how to put it into words, but you have a deep emotional insight into inner-workings of society and have such an awesome characteristic type of charisma. I've never heard someone speak so well put about the pop culture and its impact on our psyche. You not only present so well the dry facts, but also instantly follow that description with how that fact affected the world around us, which makes it so compelling to listen to and also actually makes us learn something both on factual and emotional level. Idk if anything made sense, I'm tripping balls right now. Gotta get some sleep, bye
I love how JJ can just jump from talking about the intricacies of Canadian politics one video to another video talking about mascots the next while still keeping it entertaining
The comment you made about the Victorian era and post war era is very interesting. I think within the next decade we will be able to trace back cultural significance to the 90’s and early 2000’s as well. The computer has changed our society indefinitely.
I have been seeing a bunch of merchandise from 90’s animation recently. Shows like early The Simpsons, early South Park (recently celebrated their 25th Anniversary) A BUNCH OF Beavis and Butthead (especially with how well done the recent revival was done). No joke, I saw someone wear Beavis and Butthead Pajamas recently at a coffee shop for example. Other shows like Daria I’ve also seen a surge of merchandise.
@@tannerwilson4843 I think that has to do with the fact that people who have money are in their 30-40s and those same people grew up in the 90s. Companies are aware of this, so they are just pandering to their audience.
i actually have a habit of getting attached to website mascots in particular. my favorite ones are the newgrounds mascots (the logo guy is named john, pico was on the rating icons until 2016) and the deviantart mascot fella :) my other favorite one is ptt era charles entertainment cheese
Brutus the Buckeye, although created just for The Ohio State University football team, has since become a really defining character for the state of Ohio as a whole. I dare to say that almost everyone here owns something Brutus related, especially if they've been to OSU. He's about as synonymous with the OSU name as the actual name/"brand" itself, if not moreso. He's loved even among those who don't care about college football or sports in general, such a "beloved" character
The Kellogg soil brand mascot was designed by Walt Disney as a gift after the company advised him on how best to save the plants he had in his jungle cruise ride. Disney had previously used a lot of synthetic fertilizers and soils without organic matter that resulted in poor displays of sick and dying plants and Kellogg advised him to use organic heavy amendments to buffer the plants against heat stress. Apparently it worked so well that Disney cranked out their little mascot as a thank you
School mascots have always been so interesting to me, like a physical embodiment of the school's culture itself. My elementary school's mascot was a cardinal named Keslar and we had a whole song and dance dedicated to him. It feels like a good representation of our school spirit! pls share your school mascots id love to hear them :)
I always love the mascot for a local pancake place. His name was "Chip: The Pancake Prince". He was just a pancake with noodly cartoon limbs and gloves, eyes were connected into one blob akin to Sonic the Hedgehog and had the goofiest grin you can think of. He wore a crown tilted to the side of his head(?) and held a spatula scepter. The commercial for that restaurant played constantly on many kids channels in my area for a few years. So often that the jingle that accompanied it still gets stuck in my head randomly from time to time.
Interestingly, my highschool mascot had fallen out of use by the time I was going through school, so we only had legends of it being a tasmanian devil which you could only find hidden as a logo on old school merchandise.
One of my faves is for the British small supermarket chain called Netto. Very nice dog with a shopping basket. Always made me feel like it was a lot more homeley and a smaller business than it was.
2:58 - When I first played Final Fantasy 6 (labeled 3) many years ago, I associated that song with the Industrial Revolution too. I like to hug or high five mascots.
Who could forget Bert the Turtle from the 1951 PSA film "Duck and Cover", helpfully explaining to children what to do in the event of a nuclear strike.
When I was a kid growing up in central Texas there was a regional pest control company called ABC Pest & Lawn, whose mascot was this cute cartoon aardvark that I always liked. They also had a super catchy jingle that still gets stuck in my head from time to time. They've since changed their name to ABC Home & Commercial Services, which doesn't roll of the tongue nearly as well, but they kept the mascot and the jingle (even though its meter no longer fits the name of the company, but that's neither here nor there).
I feel like the blockbuster bat that they had in some stores in the late 2000s was super underappreciated even by the corporation. Can't even find a picture of him online today.
Seeing all the Vancouver memorabilia while hearing you talk about mascots made me think of the 2010 Winter Olympics and its four mascots roughly based on real animals and with vaguely indigenous names/aesthetics. Comparing them to the very zany and almost sci-fi/corporate-looking mascots of the 2012 Summer Olympics, it makes me wonder what the whole point was, trying to make a memorable icon for a relatively short event that repeats every four years and is already ubiquitous in our culture.
Thank you thank you thank you for making this video! I've been doing my own research about mascots for the past few years and have had trouble tying together the disparate threads of sports mascots, brand mascots, etc. This is a really great historical synthesis.
Actually in Japan they're really common. Like every single prefecture has its own mascot maybe even more than one. And I remember the video you mentioned something about the charm of it being amateur, which is actually part of the appeal with these local ones because of because each of them are designed usually by competitions of local people celebrating what they love about the places that they live in
One of my grandfathers was a professional illustrator working for an advertising firm back in the mid-20th century. And throughout my entire childhood I remember being told that he had created the character King Ding-Dong for Hostess. It was later clarified to me that he was not the artist who first drew him, but rather he was part of the team that designed him. I don't know how successful of an illustrator he was, but I know that he had been retired for several years by the time I was born in 1990.
Its funny to me how mascots can be seen so loved by some and absolutely hated by others. When you mentioned the flyers mascot Gritty it made me think about other mascots in the league. Mascots like Gritty and the Al the octopus are so loved by most hockey fans. I think it's because both feel authentic to hockey culture. Hockey fans are very traditional and are very protective of the sport and its culture. Al the Octopus is the Detroit Red wings mascot because it is a call back to the old fan tradition of throwing live a live octopus on the ice for good luck (Yeah Hockey fans are weird). I also think this is why Gritty was so accepted an beloved by hockey fans, he was different and weird and his personality at games felt authentic and his appearance went well with philly sports culture( look at the Phillie Phanatic). Just like philly he was loud, brash and entertaining. He also reminded me of Youppi! the Montreal Canadiens Mascot. Youppi! like Gritty is an unexplained monster with fur. But he is loved by fans and has a historic tie to the culture and the city. A Mascot that was received poorly from hockey fans was the Mascot the Seattle Kraken just released. Seattle is a brand new franchise and just introduced there new mascot...Buoy? (no idea how to pronounce that) Buoy is a troll, with blue hair and kind of looks like a life size troll doll toys from the 90s accept it is wearing clothes. Fans absolutely hate this Mascot and find it too creepy, too weird, and too corporate. It has no charm like gritty or connection to the city or the team like Al the octopus, or Youppi have with their teams. It just a weird unrelated mascot. It looks fine. It looks cute enough like a mascot should. Yet people hate it, maybe it's too corporate for the traditional hockey culture. Myself im a New York Rangers fan. The rangers are a very old and traditional team. They never change their Jerseys or colors or logo and have kept a large following of die hard fans. And sticking with that tradition The rangers are the only team in the league without a mascot. No cartoon, no guy in a costume, not even a live animal (except that one puppy that sometimes wears a rangers jersey). We just don't have one. Part of me would like to see a mascot get added, and some people have made efforts to make the rangers a mascot. But the true fan in me likes being the only team without a mascot. Almost as if a mascot would lower the respectability of this nearly 100 year old hockey team. Although maybe it's a New York thing because the Giants, Yankees, Knicks and Jets all have no mascots. I think sports fans in general are an interesting group to look at when talking about American culture as a whole because of how passionately they protect the teams traditions and the sports culture as a whole. For example you can't expect a new mascot to receive the same reaction from sports fans as you might from the general public If anyone actually reads this thanks for reading my rant. And if JJ is reading this, Hi love the content.
The Kite Man for Pacific Power in Portland, Oregon was really weird and fun. It was a guy inside a kite who would talk about kite safety around power lines.
The most interesting mascot to me is probably the Duracell bunny. I was in the UK a while back and saw a commercial for Duracell with a pink bunny and I became super confused. Where I live, Energizer uses a pink bunny while Duracell doesn’t have a mascot. Turns out the Duracell bunny came first and then the Energizer Bunny came along to parody it. Due to legal reasons the Energizer bunny is only seen in the United States and Canada while the Pink Duracell bunny is seen elsewhere. In other words if you ask some one “what battery company uses a pink bunny” you can get two completely different answers depending on where they are from. 🐰🥁🇺🇸🇨🇦
A similar thing happened with the Cadbury Bunny. In America, the Cadbury Bunny is a real bunny that says "buck buck buck" like a chicken. In the UK it's a "sexy" female cartoon bunny. I was very confused when I first heard people from the UK talking about the Cadbury Bunny. I thought they were one kind of pervert, but they were actually a different kind of pervert.
Thanks for making another awesome video, JJ! This is my favorite style of content you put out; analyzing historical and cultural tendencies of western phenomena, and their context in the world at large.
Here in New Zealand, I have seen several mascots for all kinds of different things: car mechanics, plumbing, sports equipment, etc. But they're almost always the same creature: a kiwi. I mean it makes sense why we have so many things with a kiwi mascot, they're the national bird and the most famous internationally. But I always felt that it makes a lot of them kinda generic since none of them stand out in a significant way, at least in my eyes. Come to think of it, one bird mascot that stood out to me was when the cereal brand 'Hubbards' introduced a mascot of their own: Kahu the Kea. I still remember that old logo that featured Kahu eating a berry and that there was also a competition for the naming of said mascot, which is why he's named 'Kahu'. I think it was around 2012 when they retired the mascot (don't take my word for it), but they still reference keas on one of their granola blends that features raspberries (love that granola BTW). Miss you, Kahu!
Mascot story of my own: A long time ago someone on a high school sailing team I was on found a Listerine Bottle floating along in the river. He swung the boat around, picked it up, and cleaned it. He brought it back to the club and placed it in our Bathroom, where it has been residing as our mascot ever since. Purple Listerine is now a joke amongst the club.
JJ - I am a career mascot performer with several Major League teams, and I serve on the executive board of the "Mascot Hall of Fame" in Whiting, Indiana ... I found this piece to be quite informative and entertaining with a fun perspective, too. I will share this with my peers. Excellent job (As always)
great video as usual! i am from philadelphia a city that has been kinda blessed with some iconic mascots like the phanatic and gritty maybe even swoop we once had hip hop the bunny for the sixers i liked it. as you can imagine the liberty bell is often used as a logo in this area as well as a cartoon version of ben franklin.
Another great exploration into American Material Culture, J.J.! I'll have to remember this video for use in some of my classes. The student's would love it.
Fandoms always seem to spark a weird "possessive" instinct in people and I would argue that mascots fall under this umbrella. It'd help explain why more local and niche mascots still work and why more abstract and less defined mascot characters resonate more strongly as you can project more of yourself on to them.
as a mascot nerd and a longtime viewer, this video was an awesome surprise!!! theres something fascinating about the crossroad between marketing, art/design, and pop culture osmosis. even small mascots can end up having a lot of influence and recognition, just by design alone i live in the denver area, and one of the things i would consider a local mascot to an extent is I See What You Mean. its a statue of a blue bear peeking into the denver convention center, but its a very noticeable and fun presence in the city!! my only thing is that i dont think ICWYM isnt marketed *enough*. the bear has a lot of special symbolic meaning (its a brown bear and blue, both important traits to the Utes tribe), so i think if it was just like, on more merch or branding or even more of a highlighted art piece around the city (theres surprisingly a lot of art in downtown denver), ICWYM could be much more of a impactful mascot of denver and colorado as a whole, i think
Great 'tent as always. I had no idea some of these mascots are quite old, specifically the cereal ones. Interesting example how cultural icons are shared among generations of people without people realizing it.
There is actually a very old mascot for the city of Hagerstown, Maryland named "Little Heiskell" who adorned the city hall weather vane. He is emblematic of a Hessian soldier, and back in the 1920's had a children's book and merchandise in the form of iron doorstops
When Mexico banned mascots, a lot of people were sad about the Osito Bimbo (Bimbo little bear) no longer appearing on the packaging of Bimbo pastries anymore. Many people grew up with him on TV and I even had a stuffed toy version of him. I also remember other kids having toys of him or patches of him on their clothes. It really shows you the power of mascots over children. Also, it's funny that children in the 40s didn't recognize Santa Claus. I guess it took Coca Cola to make Santa their mascot to get him on children's minds again.
Yeah... I get that it is sad, but that is kind of proves how influential they can be. Companies making people (particularly children) attached to something that is not good for them.
Japan has a phrase called "kimo-kawaii" that translates to "gross-cute"! Thanks for the informative video! I love mascots as well, so it was so nice to learn the history of them
I was wondering why the Michelin Man wasn't covered in the video since he is one of the oldest mascots still in use. So after doing a bit of research, I just found out today that he is French.
In St. Louis the mascot for the local Jesuit University and it's associated all-boys high school is the "Billiken" a "good luck" creature that appeared in the dream of a teacher/illustrator that I don't know much about personally. But besides being a professional illustrator's creation, it is also a being very close to the original definition of a "mascotte" as well! Also there's a high school in the town I went to college in with a mascot called the "kewpies" which is a reference to some kind of old doll craze? Like a "kewpie doll" used to be a thing iirc? Oh btw it's a huge headed scary baby doll, and the mascot is also often depicted naked lol. Very strange. Columbia-Hickman is the name of this second school, and St. Louis University is the name of the first institution (the high school is called SLU High )
So I'm quite sure I've watched just about all of your videos at this point. No matter how obscurely Canadian they are! However, this video is my absolute FAVORITE! So many legit "lol" quips and jabs. But as usual very informative on the subject. Being a massive sports fan and lover of junk food cereals....so I know me some mascots! Haha Cheers from New Bedford, MA man!
When I was in undergrad my University paid some outside marketing firm millions of dollars to come up with a mascot. The school wound up choosing...none of the above, then tried to market it as "We don't need a mascot." But since all things vintage must make a comeback there's now a push to bring back a Bison mascot the school had in the 60s.
Great choices on Tile town and Beaver Lumber. I love looking through old yearbooks and seeing strange mascots from the 50s for electrical companies or pizza places. My favourite defunct mascot is Pizza Pieman from Victoria. Still have a coin from them.
I am kind of surprised by the awkward Japanese mascots but also not because they really seem to like the 'underdog who always works hard' narrative there. That seems to also be the type popular in the Japanese idol industry,cute and bumbling and imperfect idols are much beloved there and fans encourage them as opposed to the Korean idol industry where the idols have to be perfect at everything and every mistake is heavily scrutinized. Interesting to see the different reactions to similar stuff in different cultures.
I wonder if it's just that idols have been around longer in Japan, so the public may just have gotten tired of the edgeless idols in a way they haven't yet in South Korea.
One interesting thing about mascots in America is that some iconic cartoon characters have come to exist _primarily_ as mascots, despite not starting how that way. Most notably Fred and barney flintstone. They started off as iconic cartoon characters in their own right, and to an extent they still are, but they are also closely associated with a brand of cereal which is the primary use of the characters today.
Yes that is a good insight. Supposedly the first example of this happening was with the comic strip character Buster Brown, who endorsed a shoe brand and is now mostly associated with shoes, and not his Victorian era comic strip.
Don't forget the vitamins. It's funny to see children growing up today have no idea what the Flintstones is even about taking Flintstones chewable vitamins
I find this topic relatable to graphic design and how we become numb to good graphic design because it's everywhere now. When we see an ad that is purposely made poorly it actually stands out more and gains more attention.
My favorite pizza joint while I was growing up in North Louisiana, Johnny's Pizza House, used the owner and founder, Johnny Huntsman, as its mascot, which you actually saw sometimes in more regional or local brands and stuff. The current design of him is actually pretty cool. It's a nice mix of realistic and cartoony that makes his face very memorable and you begin to associate Johnny with good, dependable pepperoni pizza. I don't live there anymore but every time I visit family, I have to order a pie from there.
When I was a kid my school mascot was Grover from Sesame Street. I'm not even kidding. They stole a popular muppet character and renamed him Ocean Grover, based off my elementary schools name of Ocean Grove. In middle school we had four houses based around crocodiles of all things. There was the Caimans, the Crocs, the Salties, and the Gators. Our school slogan was "crocs rock!" with a generic green crocodile mascot. High school we had a wolf head for the sports team called the Timberwolves, based off the school name of Timberline.
It's an interesting story of how a penguin became the mascot for Linux. Linus Tarvolds (creator of Linux) was on vacation in one of the Scandinavian countries and was bit by a penguin. Thus Tux the Linux mascot was born.. )^_-)/
I cut the roof of my mouth just looking at that box of Captain Crunch. The dog mascot from the dog treats, "Snausages" & "Snausages In a Blanket" was one of the very basic cartoon drawing that we use to make fun of from 1984 because of the very fact it was so well...basic! Nearly 40 years later my friends and I still fondly remember it.
I had a Dutch girl live with me for a couple months. She was a bit confused about mascots, as there are not as many in Dutch culture at all. School mascots were the most confusing of them all to her, for some reason
Me and my brother were obsessed with MukMuk, the mascot sidekick from the 2010 olympics when him and me were 7 and 11, repectively. He was just so adorable! There was a video of him going to cheer on the other mascots in their olympic events, and makes this weird "oooo!" sound when he watches Miga speed skate. Anyways, we visited Disneyland and my brother was imitating that sound while watching the fireworks and my parents were like, "What the heck are you doing!?" After we explained the backstory it became an inside joke that you make that sound when you see or someone mentions fireworks
I don’t know why people always have to say things like this. You are not obligated to agree with everybody’s political views. That’s not expected in this life.
@@JJMcCullough I get what you mean because the "I don't agree with everything you say, but ..." is found under so many of your videos. But that's why I used that same format for my comment's joke. It was not meant to be taken seriously.
There’s a grocery store chain near where I live called IGA and when I was a kid I was always scared by there mascot which was this weird 1990’s CGI looking Grocer named Iggy.
The local mascot I have a strange fondness for is a nameless blade of grass with a little face and arms, always flexing his muscles. He was for a lawncare company and I used to drive past a big billboard with him every day while carpooling to work with my friend. It became an inside joke for us that he was some sort of all powerful badass. Our appreciation for him was ironic at first but clearly no longer is
Wally the Green Monster, the mascot for the Boston Red Sox, is a great example of a weird, slightly grotesque creature creating a sort of bond with consumers for his weirdness. He's basically the baseball cousin of Gritty.
Me and my friends have this thing called the funky lil guy phenomenon The weirder, dimmer, and more akined to a pothead you make a character, the more people will like it. A good recent example of this is with Jerma
I've always been fascinated by holiday park mascots from the UK. Usually they'd have at least 4-6 mascots that would appear in shows and do meet and greets as part of their nightly entertainment. When I was 6 years old I went to Haven and quickly fell in love with Rory the Tiger, Bradley Bear, Anxious the Elephant and the rest. They've since gotten a massive and quite controversial makeover last month that caused a *huge* uproar.
Hey JJ. Speaking of Mascots, would you ever consider doing a series of shorts based on talking about some of the random toys, posters, statues, etc. that you have in the background? A quick what it is and where you got it. There's some stuff back there that I can't quite identify, and i find it distracting not knowing what it is whenever i watch your videos ;)
I agree with your comments on local mascots. I have a sticker on my laptop of “Happy Harry”, which was the mascot of a chain of pharmacies that used to exist in Delaware and the surrounding states. There are many other stickers on my laptops with popular brands, but interestingly enough the one that gets the most comments is the one for Happy Harry’s. I think it’s the combination of the nostalgia for a brand that no longer exists and the sort of “insider knowledge” that only people who lived here at least 10 years ago would understand.
The art teacher at my high school designed and built the "Jazz Bear" mascot costume. He built more costumes for other franchises and sports teams. It was awesome having him help with theatre and musical sets and costumes for the school!
![[ ออกกอง ] วัยหนุ่ม 2544 โลกหลังลูกกรง..ทัวร์กองถ่ายหนังใน "คุกของจริง" | JUSTดูIT.](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vB--aOkZCpw/mqdefault.jpg)
That's exactly what happened when Gritty was launched! I remember that for about 1 day, Philadelphians on social media were like "why did the Flyers launch this weird mascot?" After that day, people outside Philadelphia started making fun of it and Philadelphians started to defend it against foreign enemies. The hometown devotion to the mascot was born.
i’m sure the same thing will happen to the Seattle Kraken’s Buoy the Troll
Can confirm I would defend Gritty with my life and I know he would do the same for every Philadelphian
If only the rest of the world had started dragging Santa Claus, Philadelphians would have greeted him with a big hug
I love Gritty and I’m not from Philadelphia, nor do I even like sports! He just looks fun and is shaped like a friend!
Philly changed it's mind when the Penguins, on their official twitter, took a shot at Gritty, and Gritty responded back ... “Sleep with one eye open tonight, bird". The threat of pre-emptive violence would earn Philly's esteem forever
Your words about sympathy toward amateurish and imperfect mascots resonated with me and my relationship with indie-games, music and films... I've always thought, that it's because you can easily imagine your buddy showing you something, that he worked hard in his garage over multiple weekends... And you aren't, to say, impressed with the quality of work, but it's endearing to see his efforts, and you are grateful, that he opened up to you with his passion... So many warmth feelings between two of you, looking at that hideous green pepper...
JJ another video you could make would be the history of Cars in America. From the early days of Detroit ruling American car market to German cars gaining popularity, to the huge rise of Japanese cars in the 80s, to the modern era of Tesla,Rivian and Lucid once again being American companies making it largely in America
It would be nice it he talked with the RegularCars review guys. Weird humor but their jokes are spot on when speaking about cars.
That seems far too broad and detailed of a topic for just a single video, although I would love to see some type of car content from JJ at some point.
What about American cars that are manufactured in Canada?
Being from Michigan we have history classes dedicated to learning about fords factory line. Kinda fail to bring up the antisemitism and that shitty 40 hour a week or else you die thing
To say really everything about this, one would probably need a whole channel or at least a series, but I would definitely like content about this topic from JJ.
I know you focus on American and Canadian culture, but a video on Japanese Mascot culture would be interesting because everything has a mascot there, not just companies and sports teams, even cities have mascots.
I second this! I've been to Japan a couple of times, there is a mascot for almost anything
I would gladly trade every state and city flag for mascots.
@@wolfpackjew Well, New York State already has a mascot, and it's the Statue of Liberty.
@@IronCurtaiNYC good point. And I suppose Washington and Illinois use George Washington and Abraham Lincoln in that same way.
@@wolfpackjew California, Texas, and Florida have so many to choose from. I guess for California, it could be the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hollywood sign; for Texas, it could be the Alamo or Longhorn steer; for Florida, it could be the Sun or a palm tree.
My city (Vigo, Spain) has as its unofficial mascot the "Dinoseto", a topiary shaped like a dinosaur.
It appeared one day almost by chance in the middle of a roundabout as decoration, but was pulled down the very same day, as it had been placed by mistake, and an uproar took place demanding for it to come back. It was later placed in the middle of one of the city's landmark areas and became an instant hit with visitors and locals alike.
Nowadays there's lots of merch with its depiction, a couple of other dino-topiaries have been created and it's now a mascot for some of the city's campaigns.
Thank you for sharing this! I'd be mad if such cute decor was immediately taken down, too
NC State is actually a good pick to show how what started as a school dog turned into a need for a mascot. Because they are the Wolfpack, State got a real wolf for football games thinking it would be a good idea. Well it turns out wolves are anxious creatures and they would try to hide and cry when crowds would cheer. So enter wolf costumes. - Fun fact: State would actually try numerous times to have a live Wolf mascot in the 1900s but wolves always provided problems until they found “Lobo III” In the 70s. A perfect wolf which fans loved because of the amount of times it howled during games. Where did they find such a crowd friendly wolf? Well it turned out Lobo III was actually a coyote. A discovery that fans accepted until they had a losing football season and turned on the “fake wolf” that other teams would make fun of. State wouldn’t have a another live mascot until 2010. 21st dog breeding allowed for dogs that are social like dogs while looking almost exactly like wolves. This has led to a retirement of the “Lobo” line of live animal mascots and the start of the “Tuffy” line of “wolves” which currently entertain state fans at Carter Finley stadium.
go pack
Pack 2027 🗣️🗣️
I think it's actually rather fascinating how Mascots have gone from this unambiguous stable of advertising to this very niche practice only used by toy companies or fast food chains.
Really shows us how constant criticism of the marketing to kids and a move to be seen as more professional have shifted the way we view them.
Although I have to say I actually miss the times when everyone had a mascot. Like you said there's a lot of charm in a quickly drawn cartoon mouse on the side of a local cheese shop or an anthropomorphic pig on a butcher shop window.
There's still mascots for serious products, though. Mr Clean, Geiko the gecko, the Michelin man - all products that children have no use for! :)
Sadly, I think the move away from cartoon mascots has more to do with big companies (especially Disney and McDonalds) trying to ditch the kid friendly image. And instead of doing some introspection on their part, admitting they were marketing too much to kids, they just blame animation as a medium. So their answer was to kill animation and do a hard 180 to making only super edgy live action movies/commercials. And they've been stubbornly sticking with this mentality for over two decades. Even when other companies have released animated mascots/products and it's proven successful. But hey. Far be it from me to want Disney and McDonald's to succeed... Go ahead and keep pushing your bad commercials. I'm lovin' it.
@@maxis2k McDonald's is promoting that Minion-ish Happy Meal thing really hard
@@Alex-fv2qs Yeah. In just the last year, they've done a 180 and brought out that "adult happy meal" and tried to revive all their old mascots. But even then, they're not really doing it for good reasons. It's blatant nostalgia pandering. As well, they had to change the mascots to have new weird and ugly designs. For reasons I can only theorize over. But I assume it's to again try to disassociate their old mascots from the kiddy image. "Look guys, we brought back all your old favorites. But now they're weird and edgy!" What's even the point trying to appeal to gen x nostalgia by spitting in their face? You got me. But that's how media in the west has been rolling for the last 20 years.
@@maxis2k Yeah, back in my day...haha, i always feel like an old fart in these discussions. not that i disagree, it just comes across as ironic that we complain about older generation and then criticize the knew as soon as our generation is out.
There’s always the fun thing where a company has a mascot who’s always losing (like the Trix Rabbit) or a sort of “anti-mascot” that they use to depict their competitor (like John Hodgman’s PC in those Apple ads) who the public end up feeling sympathy for
In the 80s there was an ad campaign where kids could vote on whether or not the Trix Rabbit would get to finally eat a bowl of Trix. Kids voted that he should get to have some Trix, so there's at least one commercial where he finally gets to have some.
I remember one stand-up comedian talking about those "I'm a Mac / I'm a PC" commercials, and I agreed with what he said. The "Mac" guy seemed like a hipster douchebag whereas the "PC" guy seems more straightforward and looks like someone who actually knows about computers.
Apple users strangely loyal to "their" company than PC users. In college I would always hear from "Mac evangelists", as they would actually call themselves, that Macs don't get viruses and didn't crash all the time. Then one time I was in the school's computer lab, and the Mac I was using crashed while using Adobe Premiere. When I pointed out to one of these people that a Mac just crashed, they said, "no, that was Adobe's fault, so it doesn't count". (In reality, Apple strictly controlled which hardware got to run their OS, whereas anyone could run Windows or even another OS on whatever hardware they wanted, so PCs had more variables to contend with, which could lead to more instabilities, but also more flexibility for their users.)
Another person at the school was surprised when I mentioned that I used a Firewire cable to connect a Mini DV camera to a PC. (Yes, this was a really long time ago.) This person, was genuinely surprised (and not making excuses like the previously mentioned person) and thought that only Macs were capable of using Firewire. (Technically, there was some trademark think where only Apple products were allowed to call this interface "Firewire", and everyone else had to use the harder to remember "IEEE 1394" (which I couldn't even remember and had to look up).)
One of the most heartwarming things I ever saw go viral on deviantart was some teen who drew her blue fox fursona offering a bowl of trix to the rabbit. "I just thought he should have it, finally."
The Canadian government should make a mascot that represents what’s “Canadian enough” for bill C-11.
A lobbyist?
that's literally JJ lmao
@@maxwellsings It should be either JJ himself or a Beaver overdosing on Poutine.
Dude 😂😂😂
a racist maple leaf that undersleeps to post canadian propaganda online
Watching the video as a study break and then seeing the building I'm literally sitting in (at 2:09 ) is a huge trip
Amazing!
JJ you should make a video talking about where the most common English sayings (like "He's got some skeletons in his closet") and how their meanings have changed overtime.
As a professional mascot costume character performer I’m pretty excited you decided to cover this topic.
Have you ever been Gritty?
It's a slippery slope, from there to grimey, m8
@@elijahculper5522 sadly no 😔
I never thought I would hear anyone talk about Beaver Lumber. That store has such a Canadian story and deserves to be remembered more.
Several years ago there was a controversy in Chicago about a painting called The Last Pancake Breakfast. It was a last supper scene featuring a host of beloved American product mascots with Aunt Jemima presiding. I think it was meant as a commentary on how much we get attached to these icons as real characters.
Actually, mascots are kinda coming back here in Chile. Basically, if your product is healthy enough, or if you state that it’s the “original recipe”, you can add in the mascots.
This might be a bit different than your other mascots, but I love the mascot of Anne of Green Gables for Prince Edward Island. Despite her character not being made to sell anything other than the books about her, the province of P.E.I. has completely adopted her as a mascot. Local brands will put her face on their packaging as a simple way to convey their locality. On top of all the tourist shops that are brimming with dolls and postcards featuring this character. You can even sometimes see someone dressed up as Anne during community events or parades. One of the most interesting thing about this is that it has essentially become a publicly owned mascot. The government does not own her likeness, nor has she ever adorned any official public document. But it is quite clear the role she plays in selling island culture. The fact that her character is a person puts her on a different level than other regional iconography such as the maple leaf or a lighthouse; one that makes her more akin to a mascot than a partiotic symbol.
Well that's basically all that island is know for right? Plus early confedration of Canada stuff and a long bridge that isn't really aesthetically interesting.
Ever since I discovered the idea of Olympic mascots a couple years ago, I found one mascot that I really liked and that is Vučko, the mascot of the Sarajevo'84 Winter Olympics.
There is something so simple and graceful about the design of Vučko, he kind of reminds me the classic cartoon characters made by companies like Fleischer & Disney from the 1920s-1940s.
Agree!
Mexican here. Despite mascots being banned in the packaging of "junk food", we have plenty of them inside and outside of the food industry. Like the supermarket chain Bodega Aurrera having a luchador mom called Mamá Lucha who is "the champion of low prices", or the chain of pharmacies Dr. Simi, who has a old and big doctor as the mascot. You can find someone in a suit of Dr. Simi dancing outside some local, and even in recent years there is a trend to gift plushies of Dr. Simi to touring artists by throwing them into the stage. Back in the food industry, the Bimbo bakery company has the Little Bear Bimbo, a little baker white teddy bear that is quite beloved by the people, and the ice cream chain La Michoacana having a girl in a traditional michoacan dress having an ice cream.
Spanish-speaker here, though not Mexican, but lately I've been seeing tons of memes about Dr. Simi. Also, I found out that the voice actress who voices Mamá Lucha voiced characters like kid Trunks in DBZ and Mokoto Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell
But the thing is Mamá Lucha and Dr. Simi aren't designed to appeal to children
@@georgelloydgonzalez we mexicans are built different, hermano.
@@MasterGeekMX we built different, wey
@@MasterGeekMX Us Mexicans. But anyway, I just wanted to point out that having mascots for certain stuff while banning them for children's products isn't hypocritical
An old cereal called Quisp had a weird alien-looking guy with a propeller on his head. There are mascots for public service campaigns as well, like Smoky the Bear for forest fire awareness or the old "Give a hoot, don’t pollute" owl. It’s interesting how we went from animals to all sorts of strange mascots. The Spanish word for pet is "mascota"😀✌️
Amazing. I believe in French the root comes from a word relating to witchcraft or something.
Most local electric companies for a long time would have mascots (usually a lightning bolt, lightbulb, or firefly) that taught kids about power line safety or reminded adults to call the city before digging in the yard.
Those have always fascinated me.
You can actually still get Quisp, but you have to order it online.
Re: "the old 'Give a hoot, don’t pollute' owl": That was Woodsy Owl. They redesigned him at one point, changing him from a cute round character to basically a human body with an owl head, which looked terrible. I'm not exactly clear when this new design happened or if they're still using it, but it looks/looked terrible.
@@KasumiKenshirou Haha! Yes, Woodsy!
@@Annie_Annie__ As a Minnesotan, the one that most readily comes to my mind is Reddy Kilowatt, a cartoon man with a body made of red lightning bolts, and a head with sockets for ears and a light bulb for a nose.
There's a pizza restaurant in Gainesville called Italian Gator, and that weirdly drawn mascot of a gator with a chefs hat and Italian mustache led me to choose them over the competitors more than I care to admit
I don’t know if this counts as a mascot but the current county I live in was the longtime home of Peanuts Creator Charles Schulz. This has lead to the his characters being used as pseudo mascots for various local government institutions, nonprofits, and agencies along with the airport (which uses Snoopy in his flying outfit). You will find various statues of the characters all around the county and a museum dedicated to Schulz as well.
I think that’s a somewhat distinct phenomenon of “place known for exactly one thing.”
I've heard that the hometown of Garfield's creator Jim Davis also uses Garfield and Odie in a similar fashion.
that would be similar to how in Finland, Moomins are everywhere. There are moomin mugs and plates (of course), but also moomin tea, moomin biscuits and moomin juice. Everyone has moomin mugs in their house at the very least. I can't think of an equivalent ubiquitous set of characters from my home country (Australia.) The closest would be Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, who are anthropomorphized gum blossoms, but they're very old fashioned nowadays and certainly aren't ubiquitous to the point of everyone having a piece of snugglepot and cuddlepie merch in their house.
As someone who lives near Philly, I can tell you we LOVE Gritty. He's a huge hit.
You have no idea how much people love the Buck-ee's mascot, Buck-ee the Beaver here in Texas, I see someone wearing a shirt featuring him almost every single day. People who have driven through or visited Texas have told me that it almost feels like worship with how we even have statues of him.
@@CallieMasters5000 I can't agree. Buck-ee has a large and loyal fanbase as a mascot, while Whatabuger is a (very popular) brand.
My school Texas Tech mascot was originally based on the Spanish inspired architecture with a matador as the mascot but changed due to a random newspaper article about the Red uniforms we wore hence becoming the Red Raiders. Though we still use the Matador for everything
jeez man, I dunno how to put it into words, but you have a deep emotional insight into inner-workings of society and have such an awesome characteristic type of charisma. I've never heard someone speak so well put about the pop culture and its impact on our psyche. You not only present so well the dry facts, but also instantly follow that description with how that fact affected the world around us, which makes it so compelling to listen to and also actually makes us learn something both on factual and emotional level. Idk if anything made sense, I'm tripping balls right now. Gotta get some sleep, bye
I love how JJ can just jump from talking about the intricacies of Canadian politics one video to another video talking about mascots the next while still keeping it entertaining
The comment you made about the Victorian era and post war era is very interesting. I think within the next decade we will be able to trace back cultural significance to the 90’s and early 2000’s as well. The computer has changed our society indefinitely.
It’s true, that could be a good idea for a future video
I have been seeing a bunch of merchandise from 90’s animation recently. Shows like early The Simpsons, early South Park (recently celebrated their 25th Anniversary) A BUNCH OF Beavis and Butthead (especially with how well done the recent revival was done). No joke, I saw someone wear Beavis and Butthead Pajamas recently at a coffee shop for example.
Other shows like Daria I’ve also seen a surge of merchandise.
@@tannerwilson4843 I think that has to do with the fact that people who have money are in their 30-40s and those same people grew up in the 90s. Companies are aware of this, so they are just pandering to their audience.
i actually have a habit of getting attached to website mascots in particular. my favorite ones are the newgrounds mascots (the logo guy is named john, pico was on the rating icons until 2016) and the deviantart mascot fella :) my other favorite one is ptt era charles entertainment cheese
Brutus the Buckeye, although created just for The Ohio State University football team, has since become a really defining character for the state of Ohio as a whole. I dare to say that almost everyone here owns something Brutus related, especially if they've been to OSU. He's about as synonymous with the OSU name as the actual name/"brand" itself, if not moreso. He's loved even among those who don't care about college football or sports in general, such a "beloved" character
(Of course, as a Columbus'ite I'm definitely not biased at all 😉)
I have a picture of myself sitting on a bench with Brutus.
In October I saw what I thought was an inflatable Santa in front of a house in Fremont Ohio. Turned out to be a Brutus the Buckeye
Do kids have him at their birthday parties?
@@JJMcCullough most definitely as a sanctioned Ohio State representative celebrating a Buckeye’s birthday would be included in their day to day duties
The Kellogg soil brand mascot was designed by Walt Disney as a gift after the company advised him on how best to save the plants he had in his jungle cruise ride. Disney had previously used a lot of synthetic fertilizers and soils without organic matter that resulted in poor displays of sick and dying plants and Kellogg advised him to use organic heavy amendments to buffer the plants against heat stress. Apparently it worked so well that Disney cranked out their little mascot as a thank you
Where I come from, 'cranking' relates to starting the original cars, or masterbation.
School mascots have always been so interesting to me, like a physical embodiment of the school's culture itself. My elementary school's mascot was a cardinal named Keslar and we had a whole song and dance dedicated to him. It feels like a good representation of our school spirit!
pls share your school mascots id love to hear them :)
I always love the mascot for a local pancake place. His name was "Chip: The Pancake Prince". He was just a pancake with noodly cartoon limbs and gloves, eyes were connected into one blob akin to Sonic the Hedgehog and had the goofiest grin you can think of. He wore a crown tilted to the side of his head(?) and held a spatula scepter. The commercial for that restaurant played constantly on many kids channels in my area for a few years. So often that the jingle that accompanied it still gets stuck in my head randomly from time to time.
Interestingly, my highschool mascot had fallen out of use by the time I was going through school, so we only had legends of it being a tasmanian devil which you could only find hidden as a logo on old school merchandise.
One of my faves is for the British small supermarket chain called Netto. Very nice dog with a shopping basket. Always made me feel like it was a lot more homeley and a smaller business than it was.
We also have Netto in Poland. it's also one of my favourites.
‘Big Lug’ from the Lansing Lugnuts (minor league baseball) definitely has a ‘Gritty’ sort of mascot vibe and is one of my favorite mascots of all time
JJ loves mascots so much he made himself one in his profile pic! ☺
2:58 - When I first played Final Fantasy 6 (labeled 3) many years ago, I associated that song with the Industrial Revolution too.
I like to hug or high five mascots.
Love seeing Mr Wuf in the thumbnail! GO WOLFPACK!
Who could forget Bert the Turtle from the 1951 PSA film "Duck and Cover", helpfully explaining to children what to do in the event of a nuclear strike.
When I was a kid growing up in central Texas there was a regional pest control company called ABC Pest & Lawn, whose mascot was this cute cartoon aardvark that I always liked. They also had a super catchy jingle that still gets stuck in my head from time to time. They've since changed their name to ABC Home & Commercial Services, which doesn't roll of the tongue nearly as well, but they kept the mascot and the jingle (even though its meter no longer fits the name of the company, but that's neither here nor there).
I feel like the blockbuster bat that they had in some stores in the late 2000s was super underappreciated even by the corporation. Can't even find a picture of him online today.
Seeing all the Vancouver memorabilia while hearing you talk about mascots made me think of the 2010 Winter Olympics and its four mascots roughly based on real animals and with vaguely indigenous names/aesthetics. Comparing them to the very zany and almost sci-fi/corporate-looking mascots of the 2012 Summer Olympics, it makes me wonder what the whole point was, trying to make a memorable icon for a relatively short event that repeats every four years and is already ubiquitous in our culture.
It’s a good point. The fleeting relevance of an Olympic mascot cannot help but make them feel cheap.
What amazes me is just how unremarkable Olympic mascots tend to be. It's like, they had FOUR YEARS to come up with something!
6:43 the spearmint spear man made me giggle at the thought of a drawing of him standing menacingly in a scary pose at the end of a kid's bed
Was not expecting to see Tuffy in a JJ thumbnail but will not complain. Great video and go Wolfpack!
Thank you thank you thank you for making this video! I've been doing my own research about mascots for the past few years and have had trouble tying together the disparate threads of sports mascots, brand mascots, etc. This is a really great historical synthesis.
Actually in Japan they're really common. Like every single prefecture has its own mascot maybe even more than one. And I remember the video you mentioned something about the charm of it being amateur, which is actually part of the appeal with these local ones because of because each of them are designed usually by competitions of local people celebrating what they love about the places that they live in
Oh and look at that. He mentioned it in the video
One of my grandfathers was a professional illustrator working for an advertising firm back in the mid-20th century. And throughout my entire childhood I remember being told that he had created the character King Ding-Dong for Hostess. It was later clarified to me that he was not the artist who first drew him, but rather he was part of the team that designed him. I don't know how successful of an illustrator he was, but I know that he had been retired for several years by the time I was born in 1990.
Its funny to me how mascots can be seen so loved by some and absolutely hated by others. When you mentioned the flyers mascot Gritty it made me think about other mascots in the league. Mascots like Gritty and the Al the octopus are so loved by most hockey fans. I think it's because both feel authentic to hockey culture. Hockey fans are very traditional and are very protective of the sport and its culture. Al the Octopus is the Detroit Red wings mascot because it is a call back to the old fan tradition of throwing live a live octopus on the ice for good luck (Yeah Hockey fans are weird). I also think this is why Gritty was so accepted an beloved by hockey fans, he was different and weird and his personality at games felt authentic and his appearance went well with philly sports culture( look at the Phillie Phanatic). Just like philly he was loud, brash and entertaining. He also reminded me of Youppi! the Montreal Canadiens Mascot. Youppi! like Gritty is an unexplained monster with fur. But he is loved by fans and has a historic tie to the culture and the city.
A Mascot that was received poorly from hockey fans was the Mascot the Seattle Kraken just released. Seattle is a brand new franchise and just introduced there new mascot...Buoy? (no idea how to pronounce that) Buoy is a troll, with blue hair and kind of looks like a life size troll doll toys from the 90s accept it is wearing clothes. Fans absolutely hate this Mascot and find it too creepy, too weird, and too corporate. It has no charm like gritty or connection to the city or the team like Al the octopus, or Youppi have with their teams. It just a weird unrelated mascot. It looks fine. It looks cute enough like a mascot should. Yet people hate it, maybe it's too corporate for the traditional hockey culture.
Myself im a New York Rangers fan. The rangers are a very old and traditional team. They never change their Jerseys or colors or logo and have kept a large following of die hard fans. And sticking with that tradition The rangers are the only team in the league without a mascot. No cartoon, no guy in a costume, not even a live animal (except that one puppy that sometimes wears a rangers jersey). We just don't have one. Part of me would like to see a mascot get added, and some people have made efforts to make the rangers a mascot. But the true fan in me likes being the only team without a mascot. Almost as if a mascot would lower the respectability of this nearly 100 year old hockey team. Although maybe it's a New York thing because the Giants, Yankees, Knicks and Jets all have no mascots.
I think sports fans in general are an interesting group to look at when talking about American culture as a whole because of how passionately they protect the teams traditions and the sports culture as a whole. For example you can't expect a new mascot to receive the same reaction from sports fans as you might from the general public
If anyone actually reads this thanks for reading my rant. And if JJ is reading this, Hi love the content.
The Kite Man for Pacific Power in Portland, Oregon was really weird and fun. It was a guy inside a kite who would talk about kite safety around power lines.
JJ should be the mascot of TH-cam.
TH-cam should turn the play button into a minions ripoff like McDonald's with the Happy Meal.
JJ is too smart to be the mascot of youtube. It would be a patcularly vapid vlogger or huckster
The most interesting mascot to me is probably the Duracell bunny. I was in the UK a while back and saw a commercial for Duracell with a pink bunny and I became super confused. Where I live, Energizer uses a pink bunny while Duracell doesn’t have a mascot. Turns out the Duracell bunny came first and then the Energizer Bunny came along to parody it. Due to legal reasons the Energizer bunny is only seen in the United States and Canada while the Pink Duracell bunny is seen elsewhere. In other words if you ask some one “what battery company uses a pink bunny” you can get two completely different answers depending on where they are from. 🐰🥁🇺🇸🇨🇦
Wow that’s wild
What's more, I've heard people in the UK refer to "the Energizer Bunny" even though it doesn't even exist here!
A similar thing happened with the Cadbury Bunny. In America, the Cadbury Bunny is a real bunny that says "buck buck buck" like a chicken. In the UK it's a "sexy" female cartoon bunny. I was very confused when I first heard people from the UK talking about the Cadbury Bunny. I thought they were one kind of pervert, but they were actually a different kind of pervert.
Strange, here in Chile the Energizer mascot has always been the battery itself (Mr. Energizer), the pink Bunny has been always associated to Duracell
Thanks for making another awesome video, JJ! This is my favorite style of content you put out; analyzing historical and cultural tendencies of western phenomena, and their context in the world at large.
Thank you, my friend! These are some of my favorite videos to make as well
@@JJMcCullough Hope you make a video about what was added to the american cultural canon in 2022, like you did for the past two years
@@sempersuffragium9951 way ahead of you! I’ve been taking notes for it all year.
@@JJMcCullough Good ol' JJ never letting us down!
Here in New Zealand, I have seen several mascots for all kinds of different things: car mechanics, plumbing, sports equipment, etc. But they're almost always the same creature: a kiwi. I mean it makes sense why we have so many things with a kiwi mascot, they're the national bird and the most famous internationally. But I always felt that it makes a lot of them kinda generic since none of them stand out in a significant way, at least in my eyes.
Come to think of it, one bird mascot that stood out to me was when the cereal brand 'Hubbards' introduced a mascot of their own: Kahu the Kea. I still remember that old logo that featured Kahu eating a berry and that there was also a competition for the naming of said mascot, which is why he's named 'Kahu'. I think it was around 2012 when they retired the mascot (don't take my word for it), but they still reference keas on one of their granola blends that features raspberries (love that granola BTW). Miss you, Kahu!
Mascot story of my own:
A long time ago someone on a high school sailing team I was on found a Listerine Bottle floating along in the river. He swung the boat around, picked it up, and cleaned it. He brought it back to the club and placed it in our Bathroom, where it has been residing as our mascot ever since. Purple Listerine is now a joke amongst the club.
JJ - I am a career mascot performer with several Major League teams, and I serve on the executive board of the "Mascot Hall of Fame" in Whiting, Indiana ... I found this piece to be quite informative and entertaining with a fun perspective, too. I will share this with my peers. Excellent job (As always)
great video as usual! i am from philadelphia a city that has been kinda blessed with some iconic mascots like the phanatic and gritty maybe even swoop we once had hip hop the bunny for the sixers i liked it. as you can imagine the liberty bell is often used as a logo in this area as well as a cartoon version of ben franklin.
Another great exploration into American Material Culture, J.J.!
I'll have to remember this video for use in some of my classes. The student's would love it.
Fandoms always seem to spark a weird "possessive" instinct in people and I would argue that mascots fall under this umbrella. It'd help explain why more local and niche mascots still work and why more abstract and less defined mascot characters resonate more strongly as you can project more of yourself on to them.
as a mascot nerd and a longtime viewer, this video was an awesome surprise!!! theres something fascinating about the crossroad between marketing, art/design, and pop culture osmosis. even small mascots can end up having a lot of influence and recognition, just by design alone
i live in the denver area, and one of the things i would consider a local mascot to an extent is I See What You Mean. its a statue of a blue bear peeking into the denver convention center, but its a very noticeable and fun presence in the city!! my only thing is that i dont think ICWYM isnt marketed *enough*. the bear has a lot of special symbolic meaning (its a brown bear and blue, both important traits to the Utes tribe), so i think if it was just like, on more merch or branding or even more of a highlighted art piece around the city (theres surprisingly a lot of art in downtown denver), ICWYM could be much more of a impactful mascot of denver and colorado as a whole, i think
Great 'tent as always. I had no idea some of these mascots are quite old, specifically the cereal ones. Interesting example how cultural icons are shared among generations of people without people realizing it.
There is actually a very old mascot for the city of Hagerstown, Maryland named "Little Heiskell" who adorned the city hall weather vane. He is emblematic of a Hessian soldier, and back in the 1920's had a children's book and merchandise in the form of iron doorstops
When Mexico banned mascots, a lot of people were sad about the Osito Bimbo (Bimbo little bear) no longer appearing on the packaging of Bimbo pastries anymore. Many people grew up with him on TV and I even had a stuffed toy version of him. I also remember other kids having toys of him or patches of him on their clothes. It really shows you the power of mascots over children.
Also, it's funny that children in the 40s didn't recognize Santa Claus. I guess it took Coca Cola to make Santa their mascot to get him on children's minds again.
Yeah... I get that it is sad, but that is kind of proves how influential they can be. Companies making people (particularly children) attached to something that is not good for them.
Japan has a phrase called "kimo-kawaii" that translates to "gross-cute"! Thanks for the informative video! I love mascots as well, so it was so nice to learn the history of them
Very interesting video as always JJ, the underdog theory gave me something to think about.
Holy shit that Gritty pratfall on the ice is one of the most naturally accidental looking falls I've ever seen. Dudes a pro!
I was wondering why the Michelin Man wasn't covered in the video since he is one of the oldest mascots still in use. So after doing a bit of research, I just found out today that he is French.
Great video!
I remember when I was a kid, my local gas-station had a massive bird statue, and I loved it
In St. Louis the mascot for the local Jesuit University and it's associated all-boys high school is the "Billiken" a "good luck" creature that appeared in the dream of a teacher/illustrator that I don't know much about personally. But besides being a professional illustrator's creation, it is also a being very close to the original definition of a "mascotte" as well!
Also there's a high school in the town I went to college in with a mascot called the "kewpies" which is a reference to some kind of old doll craze? Like a "kewpie doll" used to be a thing iirc? Oh btw it's a huge headed scary baby doll, and the mascot is also often depicted naked lol. Very strange. Columbia-Hickman is the name of this second school, and St. Louis University is the name of the first institution (the high school is called SLU High )
Hello Papa Jugashvili
@@birgbirg111 hello comrade
You should do a video on stuff that’s been one way for a while but way later something or someone came around and revolutionized it
So I'm quite sure I've watched just about all of your videos at this point. No matter how obscurely Canadian they are!
However, this video is my absolute FAVORITE! So many legit "lol" quips and jabs. But as usual very informative on the subject. Being a massive sports fan and lover of junk food cereals....so I know me some mascots! Haha Cheers from New Bedford, MA man!
Aw that’s awesome!
When I was in undergrad my University paid some outside marketing firm millions of dollars to come up with a mascot. The school wound up choosing...none of the above, then tried to market it as "We don't need a mascot." But since all things vintage must make a comeback there's now a push to bring back a Bison mascot the school had in the 60s.
I found Joe Camel super creepy as a child. I really couldn't bear to look at any merchandise that featured him.
Great choices on Tile town and Beaver Lumber.
I love looking through old yearbooks and seeing strange mascots from the 50s for electrical companies or pizza places. My favourite defunct mascot is Pizza Pieman from Victoria. Still have a coin from them.
I am kind of surprised by the awkward Japanese mascots but also not because they really seem to like the 'underdog who always works hard' narrative there. That seems to also be the type popular in the Japanese idol industry,cute and bumbling and imperfect idols are much beloved there and fans encourage them as opposed to the Korean idol industry where the idols have to be perfect at everything and every mistake is heavily scrutinized. Interesting to see the different reactions to similar stuff in different cultures.
This reminds me of an American Dad B plot. Tuttle was hugely popular in Korea as a reality show. Now I understand why.
I wonder if it's just that idols have been around longer in Japan, so the public may just have gotten tired of the edgeless idols in a way they haven't yet in South Korea.
My favourite mascot is Geoffrey from Toys R Us since the costume they made in real life always makes me laugh.
One interesting thing about mascots in America is that some iconic cartoon characters have come to exist _primarily_ as mascots, despite not starting how that way. Most notably Fred and barney flintstone.
They started off as iconic cartoon characters in their own right, and to an extent they still are, but they are also closely associated with a brand of cereal which is the primary use of the characters today.
Yes that is a good insight. Supposedly the first example of this happening was with the comic strip character Buster Brown, who endorsed a shoe brand and is now mostly associated with shoes, and not his Victorian era comic strip.
Don't forget the vitamins. It's funny to see children growing up today have no idea what the Flintstones is even about taking Flintstones chewable vitamins
I find this topic relatable to graphic design and how we become numb to good graphic design because it's everywhere now. When we see an ad that is purposely made poorly it actually stands out more and gains more attention.
Love to see my NC State Wolfpack getting love
My favorite pizza joint while I was growing up in North Louisiana, Johnny's Pizza House, used the owner and founder, Johnny Huntsman, as its mascot, which you actually saw sometimes in more regional or local brands and stuff. The current design of him is actually pretty cool. It's a nice mix of realistic and cartoony that makes his face very memorable and you begin to associate Johnny with good, dependable pepperoni pizza. I don't live there anymore but every time I visit family, I have to order a pie from there.
mascots kind of existed before hand as patron saints, be it the saint of a city or of a profession
When I was a kid my school mascot was Grover from Sesame Street. I'm not even kidding. They stole a popular muppet character and renamed him Ocean Grover, based off my elementary schools name of Ocean Grove.
In middle school we had four houses based around crocodiles of all things. There was the Caimans, the Crocs, the Salties, and the Gators. Our school slogan was "crocs rock!" with a generic green crocodile mascot.
High school we had a wolf head for the sports team called the Timberwolves, based off the school name of Timberline.
It's an interesting story of how a penguin became the mascot for Linux. Linus Tarvolds (creator of Linux) was on vacation in one of the Scandinavian countries and was bit by a penguin. Thus Tux the Linux mascot was born.. )^_-)/
Hahahaha, penguins in Scandinavia!
@@taleseduardolima Yeah that's the story from Linus.. )^_-)/
I cut the roof of my mouth just looking at that box of Captain Crunch.
The dog mascot from the dog treats, "Snausages" & "Snausages In a Blanket" was one of the very basic cartoon drawing that we use to make fun of from 1984 because of the very fact it was so well...basic! Nearly 40 years later my friends and I still fondly remember it.
I had a Dutch girl live with me for a couple months. She was a bit confused about mascots, as there are not as many in Dutch culture at all. School mascots were the most confusing of them all to her, for some reason
Me and my brother were obsessed with MukMuk, the mascot sidekick from the 2010 olympics when him and me were 7 and 11, repectively. He was just so adorable! There was a video of him going to cheer on the other mascots in their olympic events, and makes this weird "oooo!" sound when he watches Miga speed skate. Anyways, we visited Disneyland and my brother was imitating that sound while watching the fireworks and my parents were like, "What the heck are you doing!?" After we explained the backstory it became an inside joke that you make that sound when you see or someone mentions fireworks
I may not always align with your political views but watching your videos is worth it for the journey (or dare I say evolution) of your hair style
I don’t know why people always have to say things like this. You are not obligated to agree with everybody’s political views. That’s not expected in this life.
@@JJMcCullough I get what you mean because the "I don't agree with everything you say, but ..." is found under so many of your videos. But that's why I used that same format for my comment's joke. It was not meant to be taken seriously.
Wrigley the Spearman does not make me want to buy gum. He makes me want to call the police.
My favorite mascot is the "Jreg" mascot on the J.J McCullough channel
There’s a grocery store chain near where I live called IGA and when I was a kid I was always scared by there mascot which was this weird 1990’s CGI looking Grocer named Iggy.
once again JJ making me want to know the answer to something I never thought I needed to know
The local mascot I have a strange fondness for is a nameless blade of grass with a little face and arms, always flexing his muscles. He was for a lawncare company and I used to drive past a big billboard with him every day while carpooling to work with my friend. It became an inside joke for us that he was some sort of all powerful badass. Our appreciation for him was ironic at first but clearly no longer is
Wally the Green Monster, the mascot for the Boston Red Sox, is a great example of a weird, slightly grotesque creature creating a sort of bond with consumers for his weirdness. He's basically the baseball cousin of Gritty.
2:12 gotta love the Strike Man theme
Me and my friends have this thing called the funky lil guy phenomenon
The weirder, dimmer, and more akined to a pothead you make a character, the more people will like it. A good recent example of this is with Jerma
I've always been fascinated by holiday park mascots from the UK. Usually they'd have at least 4-6 mascots that would appear in shows and do meet and greets as part of their nightly entertainment. When I was 6 years old I went to Haven and quickly fell in love with Rory the Tiger, Bradley Bear, Anxious the Elephant and the rest. They've since gotten a massive and quite controversial makeover last month that caused a *huge* uproar.
Hey JJ. Speaking of Mascots, would you ever consider doing a series of shorts based on talking about some of the random toys, posters, statues, etc. that you have in the background? A quick what it is and where you got it. There's some stuff back there that I can't quite identify, and i find it distracting not knowing what it is whenever i watch your videos ;)
That’s a fun idea!
I love the two eras theory! I think JJ should do a book on it!
Cus funny sentient
I agree with your comments on local mascots. I have a sticker on my laptop of “Happy Harry”, which was the mascot of a chain of pharmacies that used to exist in Delaware and the surrounding states. There are many other stickers on my laptops with popular brands, but interestingly enough the one that gets the most comments is the one for Happy Harry’s. I think it’s the combination of the nostalgia for a brand that no longer exists and the sort of “insider knowledge” that only people who lived here at least 10 years ago would understand.
The art teacher at my high school designed and built the "Jazz Bear" mascot costume. He built more costumes for other franchises and sports teams. It was awesome having him help with theatre and musical sets and costumes for the school!