Episode Transcript
Don Mock 0:21
Rob, we’re back with episode 46.
Rob Broadfoot 0:23
- It’s exciting. 46 That’s a lot.
Don Mock 0:27
Yes. We’ve done a lot of podcasts. Now, I will say that we’ve broken up though by not doing 46 together. I mean, we’ve had special guests on, we’ve had some clients, we’ve had friends, we’ve had family even. I’ve had family members, right. When is your family coming on the podcast?
Rob Broadfoot 0:44
It’s a good question.
Don Mock 0:45
Does your family even know you’re doing a podcast?
Rob Broadfoot 0:47
I think it was mentioned along the way. But I don’t think they have a lot of interest in listening.
Don Mock 0:53
Okay.
Rob Broadfoot 0:54
We’re not really a podcast family.
Don Mock 0:57
uh-Oh, don’t say that. As we’re recording a podcast. That’s so funny.
Rob Broadfoot 1:01
I mean, meaning-
Don Mock 1:01
I know what you’re saying.
Rob Broadfoot 1:03
My family rarely listens to podcasts.
Don Mock 1:05
Yeah. My family is, dare I say rife with podcasts. And Rachel and I did a podcast about podcasts.
Rob Broadfoot 1:11
So it’s so meta of you.
Don Mock 1:13
Yeah, a podcast about podcasts. Alright, Episode 46. But we’re not gonna talk about podcasts. We’re going to talk about advertising mascots and spokespeople mascotty sort of things. Thought of a fun little exercise might be to discuss our favorite mascots in advertising. Maybe even we do a special shout out to our to our least favorite what failed and whatnot. Now, we did pregame this a couple minutes before we started recording. But it should be noted that neither one of us took a look at our phones or computers to google anything related. This is straight from our own brains of what we can remember. Which is kind of interesting. All right. Do you want me to go first? You want to go first? How do we want to do this?
I’ll Just start talking. How bout that?
Okay, do it.
I got to do it from microphone. Make a note. I had to write a note.
Oh, no, something Just popped in your mind.
Rob Broadfoot 2:09
So I immediately I think many people would do. I kind of go nostalgic, right?
Don Mock 2:10
Yeah, for sure.
Rob Broadfoot 2:10
Because a lot of these tend to focus on kids and things like that. All of that said, my quick first from-the-hip answer is… I remember distinctly the Kool Aid man from a kid, the Kool Aid man breaking through the wall. We’ve mentioned Kool Aid, man before.
Don Mock 2:26
We have, it’s come up before.
Rob Broadfoot 2:28
And Kool-Aid man would break through the wall. Yeah. We don’t know why he broke through the wall Just because he did. Yeah. Here he comes. And I always thought that was a great fun, Just sort of nostalgic character that comes to mind.
Don Mock 2:51
I think he’s been both like a real 3-dimensional person and also an illustrated cartoon.
Rob Broadfoot 2:57
I think so I think so. I’m assuming he’s still alive and well.
Don Mock 3:01
Yeah, I don’t drink a lot of Kool-Aid. Very a lot of Kool-Aid.
Rob Broadfoot 3:05
Does Kool-Aid still advertise? This is terrible. This is a podcast about advertising. We don’t even know of Kool-Aid still advertises?
Don Mock 3:11
I’m sure they do. Yeah. They have to.
Rob Broadfoot 3:13
Yeah but not national broadcast television spots anymore…Alright, so the Kool Aid man, I like the Kool Aid, man.
Don Mock 3:19
He’s an iconic one that came to you.
Rob Broadfoot 3:22
At the first shoot from the hip.
Don Mock 3:24
The first shoot from the hip, and you’re gonna laugh, because we have a statue of this person in the office. But the Pillsbury Doughboy? Yeah, the little white-
Rob Broadfoot 3:37
Also a round character like the Kool-Aid man. Yeah, luckily, they’re shaped similar.
Don Mock 3:40
But for whatever reason, when when we came up with this idea, I started thinking a lot of food-based thing. It seems like a lot of grocery stores and foods and sort of eating, for whatever reason had mascots for it. From a nostalgic perspective. So used to have the great old Pillsbury Doughboy and the hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo, or whatever he would say, it’s a some type of goofy little-
Rob Broadfoot 4:00
Poke him in the belly and he would giggle.
Don Mock 4:01
You’re right, and it was hey, the crescent rolls and all the different sort of things you bake in the oven and they rise. I’m assuming he’s made of dough. I mean, that was his thing. And then it’s Hey, mom, and kids are rolling out the biscuits. And then we poke the dough boy and he giggles and then we have delicious breakfast. I guess. It’s such a strange, weird thing to think about.
Rob Broadfoot 4:24
Yeah. But I think it’s anything. I had I had Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls this past weekend, in fact. That would fall into the Doughboy brand.
Don Mock 4:31
Totally, totally.
So I mean, but when we moved into this building, the previous tenant of the building that we’re in right now was a food distributor and they had a giant… I shouldn’t say giant. What is that thing? Three feet tall, two feet tall?
Rob Broadfoot 4:43
Two feet tall.
Don Mock 4:43
Yeah. Statue of the… it’s like a promotional item. We kept the Doughboy, he’s on top of the fridge right now in the office. That was kind of the first thing that came to mind.
Rob Broadfoot 4:55
Okay, well also food too. So that made me think of hohoho.
Don Mock 5:00
Hohoho?
Rob Broadfoot 5:01
Green giant.
Don Mock 5:02
Oh, well that’s what’s on my note right here is Jolly Green Giant.
Rob Broadfoot 5:05
Jolly Green Giant who sort of stands tall.
Don Mock 5:09
All I think about is asparagus. I don’t know why. Why is it asparagus or broccoli with the Jolly Green Giant?
Rob Broadfoot 5:16
I think he also stands for green beans.
Don Mock 5:18
Now, is he still a thing? I mean is the Jolly Green-?
Rob Broadfoot 5:20
I feel like he’s still on the packaging.
Don Mock 5:22
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 5:22
In that stance.
Don Mock 5:23
I thought he was cool. I don’t know that he made me want to eat vegetables when I was a kid.
Rob Broadfoot 5:28
No.
Don Mock 5:28
But I’m down with the Jolly Green Giant. It kind of says fresh. It feels like we went to the jelly green forest and chopped down giant asparagus trees. Or something weird.
Rob Broadfoot 5:37
I suppose that’s why he is standing the way he’s standing, is to imply that you’re strong when you eat your vegetables.
Don Mock 5:44
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 5:44
Then grow strong.
Don Mock 5:46
Well, yes. Yeah, exactly. Green Giant. Oh, nicely done.
Rob Broadfoot 5:52
Also then, how about-
Don Mock 5:54
He was gonna be my honorable mention, the Jolly Green Giant.
Rob Broadfoot 5:56
How about Captain Crunch?
Don Mock 5:58
Captain Crunch?
Rob Broadfoot 5:59
Captain.
Don Mock 5:59
Yeah
Rob Broadfoot 6:00
That was a good one.
Don Mock 6:01
Yes. A lot of cereals. So I mean, cereal was trying to get kids to ask their parents to buy sugar whatever’s, so tons and tons of cereal-based little mascots and whatnot.
Rob Broadfoot 6:12
I have a curveball.
Don Mock 6:13
Okay, hit me.
Rob Broadfoot 6:14
Uga.
Don Mock 6:15
Uga? Like a sports mascot.
Rob Broadfoot 6:17
Sport mascot.
Don Mock 6:19
Yeah, okay.
Rob Broadfoot 6:19
Think about all the sports mascots, right? You got Harry, who’s the one in the character.
Don Mock 6:24
Correct.
Rob Broadfoot 6:24
But then you’ve got Uga who is one of the great mascots-
Don Mock 6:27
An actual animal.
Rob Broadfoot 6:28
- in all of football history.
Don Mock 6:30
Okay. Whoa, Tiger.
Rob Broadfoot 6:32
Whoa Tiger, right. When he almost bit the tiger.
Don Mock 6:34
Yeah, yeah. Was that what it was? Auburn is going off to the player. Okay. That’s pretty funny. Yeah,
Rob Broadfoot 6:40
He’s a good one.
Don Mock 6:41
All right, who is your… any least favorite? Like epic failure or just never resonated with you, doesn’t have to be a failure. Just like Ugh, I never really vibe with that.
Rob Broadfoot 6:50
The one that comes to mind to me is-
Don Mock 6:53
I hope it’s not the one I picked.
Rob Broadfoot 6:54
- Domino’s Pizza.
Don Mock 6:56
Oh my God. It is literally the one that I picked.
Rob Broadfoot 6:58
Avoid the Noid.
Don Mock 6:59
The Noid. Yeah, that’s what I wrote down. No way.
Rob Broadfoot 7:01
To me that was-
Don Mock 7:02
Ah, I knew we were going to pick the same one. It’s so funny.
Rob Broadfoot 7:05
The Noid kind of fell flat for me. Well, what was the Noid?
Don Mock 7:10
So Domino’s Pizza back in the day have the 30-Minute guarantee, right? It was you’re going to call, you’re going to order the pizza (pre-internet).
Rob Broadfoot 7:09
Right.
Don Mock 7:20
And someone’s going to bring it to your house in 30 minutes or less. Right now they also had that weird it’s free. or it’s money off .or something or another. But then it was like, they have to give away pizzas. I don’t know, it became a kind of a disaster, right? So the Noid was everything that prevents you from getting your pizza in 30 minutes. He was out there in the road, causing havoc, messing things up. So you wouldn’t get your pizza on time. Domino’s would avoid the Noid.
Rob Broadfoot 7:47
Right. What was he? I’m trying to picture him in my brain. Was he just this weird little carrot?
Don Mock 7:52
He was like a little gremlin-looking guy-
Rob Broadfoot 7:54
I can’t picture him.
Don Mock 7:55
- with a big nose and he was in a red jumpsuit. Okay, and I think he had a giant “N” on his chest like a superhero. He had big bunny ear things, but they were red. And he was kind of like a “he he he ha ha ha,” like a crazy running around sort of disaster thing. I can’t believe you pick the noise. That’s so funny.
Rob Broadfoot 8:15
Avoid the Noid
Don Mock 8:16
Yeah, avoid the Noid.
Rob Broadfoot 8:16
They ran with that for a long time.
Don Mock 8:16
It did. It did. Well, we’ve got Rhyme Time. You know, I mean, it rhymes so we can’t get rid of it.
Rob Broadfoot 8:16
Yeah. Avoid the Noid.
Don Mock 8:17
Yeah, not. For me, it Just never really resonated I think because… Domino’s since then did an entire revitalization of the entire product, not only just the stores. They they dumped pizza and now it’s just Domino’s.
Rob Broadfoot 8:39
Yeah.
Don Mock 8:40
Because you can get like subs and other weird stuff there. Right?
Rob Broadfoot 8:42
Yeah.
Don Mock 8:43
And they went through a whole thing where it’s, hey, we changed all of our ingredients. We changed the way we made pizza to make a better product. I feel like back then, their product was clearly inferior. It just wasn’t as good as other pizzas. And so they were reliant on “we get to your house fast.” I mean, it’s a bad pizza, but we’ll get there quick.
Rob Broadfoot 9:02
Yeah, we’ll have it there in 30 minutes or less.
Don Mock 9:04
Yeah. When the savages are rioting at your house for dinner.
Rob Broadfoot 9:07
Well, I have to go back and look, but they came out with some campaign not that long ago. The whole thing was, they were bringing back the whole thing- I remember watching- it was like “if you don’t get your pizza in 30 minutes,” or “if we mess up your pizza.”
Don Mock 9:23
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 9:23
“You don’t have to pay for your pizza.” Yeah. And in my brain. I was like, well, wow. So you’re telling me that if I order your product, yeah. And you get it to me late or you mess it up, you’re gonna do something about it?
Don Mock 9:35
Yeah. Well, I think the spot you’re referencing too, was them… it was following up, it was- God I can’t even speak- it was almost documentary, following the people that were making good on their own blunders. So it’s like, “Oh, hi. I’m here to give you your free pizza because we messed up” and they’re like, “Oh, thank you. So nice of you.”
Rob Broadfoot 9:55
Let’s run an entire spot of us messing up.
Don Mock 9:57
Yeah, it seemed very strange to me. Hey, I’m a big fan of truth in advertising and boxy but safe. You know what I mean? Let like be truthful, right? But that to me-
Rob Broadfoot 10:08
That’s going a little too far.
Don Mock 10:09
Agree.
Rob Broadfoot 10:09
That’s basically saying we’re going to mess it up, and when we do, you bet we’re gonna make it right
Don Mock 10:14
So funny you picked Avoid the Noid.
Rob Broadfoot 10:16
Yeah, the Noid does nothing for me.
Don Mock 10:18
Well, since you went sports mascot, I will throw out another kind of oddball and go with the Road Runner.
Rob Broadfoot 10:27
Oh!
Don Mock 10:27
The 70s Dodges I believe. I always thought that was an interesting tie-in because Wiley Coyote, Road Runner, that that type of 1960s cartoon, very clearly geared towards kids. I mean, it’s a great cartoon. I mean, Looney Tunes, that whole deal. Yet 10 years later, muscle car Americana extravaganza, big Hemi motors and all that stuff. Yet we’re using a children’s cartoon. Like in a decal and literally naming that. It was a special edition Road Runner edition. I always thought that was interesting. I think it’s cool. I mean, looking back at it now, because it’s retro, nostalgic.
Rob Broadfoot 11:09
It’s fast and all the things.
Don Mock 11:10
But it seemed like “Oh, wow.” Yeah, it seemed at the time like “Huh, what a weird partnership. Yeah, the Road Runners speed. I get it. It’s fast. But it just seems like it seems weird to stick that sticker on on a kick-ass Dodge.
Rob Broadfoot 11:26
I think if we’re thinking about mascots, I don’t know if this technically be a mascot or not. Yeah, probably not. But just campaign thematics. Really, the character Mayhem.
Don Mock 11:38
Yes.
Rob Broadfoot 11:38
Is, in my opinion, fantastic. One of the best campaigns in recent memory.
Don Mock 11:45
How long is that baby been running for, too?
Rob Broadfoot 11:46
Years? I mean, it’s six, seven years.
Don Mock 11:51
Fantastic casting, too. I mean, that actor-
Rob Broadfoot 11:53
Absolutely brilliant casting. He absolutely nails it and the spots are just so funny.
Don Mock 11:59
Well, what’s so great, too, is he’s everything. I mean, you mentioned college football. There’s the one where-
Rob Broadfoot 12:03
It’s the game day one.
Don Mock 12:04
Yeah. But then it’s I’m the Christmas tree. He’s on top of the car talking. I mean, there’s all sorts of great stuff with Mayhem. That’s obviously for Allstate. Yeah, that’s a great campaign.
Rob Broadfoot 12:14
And there’s no end in sight. Now that can Just go forever and ever.
Don Mock 12:18
Is that a mascot? I guess for purposes of this conversation.
Rob Broadfoot 12:21
I say that only because he’s a character like Mayhem. He has a name, you know?
Don Mock 12:25
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 12:26
I don’t know that actor. I don’t know what his name is. But that’s a good one.
Don Mock 12:29
Yeah, he was in some cop show. I feel like, but I can’t remember his name.
Rob Broadfoot 12:32
That sounds right.
Don Mock 12:33
Sounds right. I’m also a big fan. This is not specific to a brand or to a campaign, but I always get a good chuckle out of any restaurant that uses an animal serving itself as the mascot of the restaurant. So for example, the barbecue joint that has a pig that is holding the platter of ribs. Right
Rob Broadfoot 12:58
It’s cannibalistic. It’s weird.
Don Mock 13:00
That whole thing has always tripped me out. And you see that more? It’s like, oh, it’s a chicken is the mascot of the Chicken Shack. And it’s holding a big thing of wings or whatever. That’s like, God, this is so weird.
Rob Broadfoot 13:13
It is odd,
Don Mock 13:13
But that feels a little retro. It feels a little funky and quirky. I always get a good kick out of that one. That always cracks me up.
Rob Broadfoot 13:22
I was looking at that packaging over there.
Don Mock 13:23
Oh, the chicken stuff that we’ve done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we do a fair amount of chicken work, which is fun. So anything else? Anybody else that comes, any other- ?
No, just trying to wrack my brain and think we’ve listed out all the ones I jotted down real quick.
Yeah, food seems to be a lot of interesting, funky, weird, little mascots, and I’m not quite sure why.
Rob Broadfoot 13:49
I think we need to go back and do a little bit of a visual study and see. We’ll post a couple of pictures of Kool-Aid over the years.
Don Mock 13:56
Yeah.
Rob Broadfoot 13:56
And whatever else we can find that would be interesting to look at.
Don Mock 13:59
Totally, totally.
Rob Broadfoot 14:01
And see and see.
Don Mock 14:01
All right. All right. Cool.
Rob Broadfoot 14:03
Well, good enough. I think that’s-
Don Mock 14:06
Yeah, we’ll wrap it up for today.
Rob Broadfoot 14:07
Wrap it up for today. And thanks for tuning in. You can find us on the interwebs of course at mocktheagency.com and on the socials @mocktheagency. So drop us a line and we’ll talk to you next time.
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