The mascot is the brand's mascot. Some mascots, like Michelin Man, have been around for over a century. But each, 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
In the aftermath of the disastrous failure of the Apollo 1 mission, NASA has taken on greater responsibility for rebuilding its image. The agency reached out to Charles Schultz, creator of Peanuts comics, and asked permission to use Snoopy as a security mascot.
It was a difficult challenge for Schultz, because if one of the new Apollo missions failed, his beloved character's reputation would also be at risk. But, according to his son Craig Schultz, Charles believed that if astronauts could risk their lives, then he could risk his characters.
After Snoopy became NASA's mascot, many new comic books have emerged about his space adventures. One of the original sketches of astronaut Snoopy with his aquarium helmet served as the prototype for the silver pin. It has been worn by American astronauts since 1968 during their missions. When they return, they present the pin as a token of appreciation to the people who have 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 of the ship's modules were given the names of the Peanuts comic characters. The commander's service module was named Charlie Brown, and the lunar module was named Snoopy.
9. Android Mascot
Another interesting fact about mascots involves the cute green robot that artist Irina Blok created for Google in 2007. And the source of inspiration for her, according to various versions, was:
- Restroom door pictograms.
- A character from the 90s game "Gauntlet: The Third Encounter".
- R2D2 from Star Wars.
Block's design was simple enough to become iconic, and attract a much wider audience than the developer community it was originally aimed at.
After its release, the cute Android mascot started popping up everywhere with all sorts of weird tweaks, including ninjas, pirates, and even cats. One of the funniest pieces of art featured an Android mascot biting the famous Apple logo.
Google's mascot has no official name. For a while he was called Andy - possibly after Android creator Andy Rubin. The Android team simply called the robot Bugdroid.
8. Lion-MGM mascot
Now, with the widespread adoption of computer graphics, it is difficult to believe that the lion that roars at the beginning of the films of the Hollywood film studio MGM is actually real. However, it is so. And this is not the same lion!
In fact, there was a magnificent seven of 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 Jackie the lion. He participated in the shooting of the screensaver from 1928 to 1956. And he has starred in over 100 films, one of which is the original Tarzan.
And Jackie is the lion who survived. He survived five severe disasters. 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 in the Arizona desert. Jackie and the pilot stayed there for nearly four days, feeding on leftover water and a few sandwiches. This earned the lion the nickname "Lucky".
7. Ronald McDonald - McDonald's mascot
For some, funny, but 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 Life, legendary TV personality, actor and comedian Willard Scott stated that he created the character at the request of McDonald’s. He even played the role of Ronald constantly from 1963 to 1966 and intermittently until 1971.
But he was later replaced because McDonald's worried that Scott's overweight would damage the brand's image.
6. Penguin for Linux OS
Whenever someone talks about Linux, 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 "penguin".
Torvalds once joked that he was bitten by a penguin and said that as a result of the bite he contracted "penguinitis." He even added that the disease makes a person stay awake at night and have an immense love for penguins.
This gave Larry Ewing the idea to create 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.The Michelin Man is the mascot of the Michelin tire manufacturer
Once the founders of the tire empire, Edouard and André Michelin, came across a stack of tires of different sizes, which gave the impression of a person. Only a couple of hands were missing.
Years later, the French cartoonist Marius Rossillon showed them the 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 (he was named Bibendum) drank a drink made from nails and broken glass. The poster read: “Now we have to drink! Michelin tires drink obstacles for your health. " Because of this, the Parisians, who have a sense of humor, nicknamed the Michelin man "the road drunk."
Do you know why the "tire man" is white? Because the tires were originally gray-white or light-colored. It wasn't until 1912 that the tires turned black when carbon black was added to the rubber as a preservative and hardening material.
4. Sad dog - VKontakte mascot
The author of the logo, which depicts a sad dog of indeterminate breed, is the creator of VKontakte Pavel Durov. He created it during a charity auction for children from an orphanage. Later, professional artists began to redraw the dog.
And besides the actual role of the mascot, the dog, which was named Spotty, played another good role. 100% of the merch sales with her went to help orphanages and children's homes.
And in 2018, during the large-scale battle of Roskomnadzor with the Telegram messenger, Spotty became a symbol of "digital resistance"
3. Alien is a symbol of Reddit
Reddit co-founders Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman created the code for the "Main Page of the Internet" - Reddit - in just three weeks. At the same time, Ohanyan personally drew the site's emblem - an alien baby. And I wanted to name the site "Snoo", from the short form "What's new?"
But the Snoo domain name has already been bought by someone else. Ohanian and Huffman contacted the owner of the domain, but he refused to sell it. Therefore, friends decided to temporarily name the site Reddit (and, as they say, there is nothing more permanent than temporary). And we compromised by simply calling our 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, quite a few 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). This is what the Chinese sometimes call a 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 cute red panda or an equally cute fox.
1. Mi Bunny - Xiaomi's mascot
One of the most famous mascots in the world is the mascot of the Chinese corporation Xiaomi, a white rabbit in a hat with earflaps with a red star and a red tie. It seems that he still lacks a nuclear reactor and a bear nearby, and would be a great logo for some Russian company.
In China, the hat worn by the Xiaomi bunny is called the hat of Lei Fen, 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 day and night works on miracle drugs that heal from diseases and give longevity.
So the hare "Xiaomi" is an active, committed to communist ideals, an altruistic pioneer mascot, always ready for new exploits.