10 interesting facts about famous mascots
Contents:
• The mascot is the brand's mascot. Some mascots, like the Michelin Man, have been around for over a century. But everyone, even a completely new mascot, has its own, and often very interesting story. We will tell you 10 interesting facts related to the famous mascot mascots.
10. Snoopy is NASA's security mascot
After the disastrous failure of the Apollo 1 mission, NASA took on a greater responsibility for restoring its image. The agency approached Charles Schultz, creator of the Peanuts comics, and asked for permission to use Snoopy as a security mascot.
• It was a tough call for Schultz, because if one of the new Apollo missions failed, his beloved character's reputation would also be in jeopardy. But, according to his son Craig Schultz, Charles believed that if the astronauts could risk their lives, then he could risk his characters.
• Since Snoopy became NASA's mascot, there have been many new comics about his space adventures. One of the original sketches of astronaut Snoopy with his aquarium-shaped helmet became the prototype for the silver pin. It has been worn by American astronauts since 1968 during their missions. When they return, they present a pin as a token of appreciation to the people who contributed to the safety and success of these missions.
• The Apollo 10 mission adopted Snoopy as its official mascot. Before launching the spacecraft, the crew stroked the nose of the mascot as a sign of good luck. Even two modules of the ship were given the names of characters from the Peanuts comic book. The Commander Service Module was named Charlie Brown and the Lunar Module was named Snoopy.
9. Android mascot
Another interesting fact about mascots is related to the cute green robot that artist Irina Blok created for Google in 2007. And the source of inspiration for her, according to different versions, was:
- Pictograms on the toilet door.
- A character from the 90s game Gauntlet: The Third Encounter.
- R2D2 from Star Wars.
• Block's design was simple enough to become iconic and appeal to a much wider audience than the developer community it was originally aimed at.
• After its release, the cute Android mascot started showing up everywhere with all sorts of weird changes, including ninjas, pirates, and even cats. One of the funniest pieces of art featured the Android mascot biting the famous Apple logo.
• The Google mascot does not have an official name. For a while, he was called Andy, possibly after Android creator Andy Rubin. The Android team simply named the robot Bugdroid.
8 MGM Lion Mascot
Now, with the ubiquity of computer graphics, it's hard to believe that the lion that roars at the beginning of MGM movies is actually real. However, that is how it is. And it's not the same lion!
• In fact, there was a magnificent seven lions that "served" MGM. The seventh lion was a true veteran of the film industry. He appears in MGM films from 1957 to the present.
• But the most interesting fate is that of the lion Jackie. He participated in the filming of the screensaver between 1928 and 1956. And starred in more than 100 films, one of which is the original Tarzan.
• And Jackie is a lion who survived. He survived five severe catastrophes. Two of them are train wrecks, one is an earthquake, and the fourth is an explosion in the studio itself. During the fifth crash, Jackie was on the plane when the plane crashed and the plane crashed into the Arizona desert. Jackie and the pilot stayed there for almost four days, living on leftover water and a few sandwiches. This earned the lion the nickname "Lucky".
7. Ronald McDonald – McDonald's mascot
For some, a funny, and for some, a frightening clown is one of the most famous mascots in the world. He is known as Ronald McDonald. In his book The Joy of Living, legendary TV presenter, actor and comedian Willard Scott stated that he was the one who created the character at the request of McDonald's. He even played the part of Ronald full-time from 1963 to 1966 and intermittently until 1971.
• But he was later replaced as McDonald's was worried that Scott's being overweight would hurt the brand's image.
6. Penguin for Linux OS
Whenever someone talks about the Linux OS, the image of a penguin immediately comes to mind. This funny mascot named Tux was created thanks to Linus Torvalds the creator and founder of Linux, and his penguinite.
• Torvalds once joked about being bitten by a penguin and said that the bite had infected him with "penguinitis". He even added that this disease makes a person stay awake at night and have a great love for penguins.
• This gave Larry Ewing the idea to create the Dachshund as the brand's mascot. The name was first used by James Hughes who said it was an abbreviation for (T)orvalds (U)ni(X).
5. Michelin Man – the mascot of the tire manufacturer Michelin
Once the founders of the tire empire, Edouard and André Michelin, stumbled upon a stack of tires of different sizes, which gave the impression of a person. The only thing missing was a pair of hands.
• Years later, the French cartoonist Marius Rossillon showed them an image of the king he created for the brewery. After seeing the image, the Michelin brothers asked Rossillon to replace the image of the king with a man made of tires. Rossillon came up with a poster in which a tire man (called Bibendum) drank a drink made from nails and broken glass. On the poster was the inscription: “Now you have to drink! For your health, Michelin tires drink obstacles." Because of this, the Parisians, who can not be denied a sense of humor, nicknamed the Michelin man "road drunk".
• Do you know why the "tire man" is white? Because the original tires were gray-white or light. It wasn't until after 1912 that tires became black when carbon black was added to the rubber as a preservative and reinforcing material.
4. Sad dog – VKontakte mascot
The author of the logo, which depicts a sad dog of an indeterminate breed, is the creator of VKontakte Pavel Durov himself. He created it during a charity auction for children from an orphanage. Later, professional artists took up redrawing the dog.
• And in addition to the actual role of the mascot, the dog, which was named Spotty, played another good role. 100% of the sales of merchandise with her went to help orphanages and orphanages.
And in 2018, during a large-scale battle between Roskomnadzor and the Telegram messenger, Spotty became a symbol of “digital resistance”
3. Alien – the symbol of Reddit
Reddit co-founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman created the code for the "home page of the Internet" – Reddit – in just three weeks. At the same time, Oganyan personally drew the emblem of the site – an alien baby. And I wanted to name the site "Snoo", short for "What's New?".
• But Snoo's domain name has already been bought by someone else. Oganian and Huffman contacted the owner of the domain, but he refused to sell it. So the friends decided to temporarily call the site Reddit (and as they say, nothing is more permanent than temporary). And they compromised by simply naming their alien mascot Snoo.
2. FireFox – the mascot of the browser of the same name
Who do you see in this picture, a fox or a panda? Oh, a lot of copies have been broken on this topic in Internet battles! The very name Firefox or "fire fox" is a literal translation from Chinese, (火狐). So the Chinese sometimes call the small or red panda.
• But this famous mascot is very much like a fox, so decide for yourself who is in front of you – a handsome red panda or an equally cute fox.
1. Mi Bunny – Xiaomi mascot
One of the most famous mascots in the world is the mascot of the Chinese corporation Xiaomi, a white rabbit wearing an earflap hat with a red star and a red tie. It seems that he still lacks a nuclear reactor and a bear nearby, and it would be a great logo for some Russian company.
• In China, the hat worn by the Xiaomi bunny is called the hat of Lei Feng, a Chinese orphan raised by the PLA, who posthumously became a model for nationwide propaganda glorifying altruism and loyalty to communist ideals.
• In Chinese mythology, a white or moon hare works day and night on miracle potions that heal diseases and grant longevity.
• So the Xiaomi hare is an active, devoted to communist ideals, altruistic pioneer mascot, always ready for new exploits.
