The Halls of Advertising are littered with abandoned and disgraced mascots. They live in infamy for a variety of reasons; some were judged to be efforts to indoctrinate minors to adult products, like Joe Camel for cigarettes, or Spuds McKenzie for beer. Other defrocked mascots embodied racist stereotypes from a bygone era, like Aunt Jemima syrup and pancake mix, Uncle Ben rice, or the Frito Bandito. Still others acquired creepy connotations, like Ronald McDonald being moved to far less prominent roles as clowns became increasingly regarded as scary rather than funny. Yet more came to be associated with unfortunate incidents regarding the mascot, such as product tampering, recalls, and even abductions…
Yes, antisocial, deviant, and even criminal behavior could be modeled by product mascots, all in the name of good fun, and we liked it, as Dana Carvey’s Grumpy Old Man might have reminded us…
“Why, back in my day, we could punch tourists in the face, enjoy wanton acts of property destruction, ruin pizza preparation, and shamelessly steal food…AND WE LIKED IT!!!
A good mascot can linger in the mind, melding itself with the product in the consumer’s mind so that it was never fully absent from consciousness, even if put on hiatus for a while. Even a mascot that we love to hate can work in the interests of the product producer. Now there are few mascots that I can say that I genuinely hate, even if I find them annoying, and there are lots of things that I can find annoying, especially if they are loud, repetitious, or blatantly stupid…
The Liberty Biberty, however, seems to have divided the populace as a mascot more than usual, with many expressing hatred towards this creature. I personally do not hate the Biberty, but do find him/her/it annoying, and will be glad when they run their course and disappear, although this may take some time due to the attention and strong feelings that the creature generates. To an advertiser, even negative attention is better than no attention at all…
One can be annoyed by or hate the Liberty Biberty for a variety of reasons, either individually or collectively. I find the creature’s large human-like blue eyes and large teeth to be troubling, as are its lack of extremities or visible means of locomotion. I can’t even identify its gender. The apparent purpose of the thing is to talk to people about insurance wherever it lands, and this is offensive by its very nature. It’s perhaps encouraging that a protest was held against the Liberty Biberty recently at Liberty Mutual headquarters in Boston in late October…fight the power!
John Oliver contended on his late night show that “love can do what hate cannot” and suggested that sexualized images of the Liberty Biberty might better serve to destroy its effectiveness as an advertising mascot, citing the case of a New Zealand bank’s green sheep mascot that was withdrawn when viewers voiced amorous intents towards it...but hey, this is one cute sheep!
This thought of buff Biberties leads us to some dark and forbidden places…
I can’t see the Biberty in this context, seeing in it instead horror potential…
While the Biberty has polarized viewers, it’s a least a diversion from political attack ads that have plagued our TV viewing for far too many weeks now…
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