Foodies Told Mashed Which Food Mascot Should Make A Comeback- Exclusive Survey
These days, when you ask someone to name an advertising mascot, they're likely to come up with one from an insurance commercial: Flo from Progressive, LiMu Emu, the AFLAC duck, or that cute little Geico gecko. Back in the 20th century, however, advertisers were all about food mascots. Quite a few of those mascots are still with us and in fact, many of them have been rebooted for the modern era: Tony the Tiger is now a Twitch streamer, while Toucan Sam got all glammed up several years ago. Other mascots, however, were quietly retired, or, in one notorious case, not-so-quietly killed off. While some of these missing mascots still have their fans, others have long faded from our memory. (Anyone remember Mr. Ripe Guy the avocado? Didn't think so.)
If we had the power to bring back any of these pensioned-off spokescharacters though, which ones would we pick? Mashed polled 582 readers and offered a choice of five: the Burger King Kids Club Gang, the California Raisins, Grimace, Mr. Peanut, and Twinkie the Kid. Which one of these mascots came out on top? As it turns out, the most popular one of the bunch is already back among the living.
Mr. Peanut was resurrected after his controversial car accident
The top vote-getter, chosen by 34.71% of respondents, was Mr. Peanut. This top-hatted centenarian was seen to perish in a car accident in early 2020 but was reborn at that year's Super Bowl as Baby Nut. Nobody went nuts over Mr. P's Mini Me, though, so by the following year Planters discreetly reverted to the original version.
In second place, not too far behind with 32.30%, were the California Raisins. Unfortunately for their fans, these '80s music sensations haven't been heard from (through the grapevine or otherwise) since 1994. Grimace, the weird purple lump who used to shill for McDonald's, came in third with 14.09%, perhaps getting a boost from his surprise cameo in Mickey D's 2022 Super Bowl commercial.
Fourth place went to Twinkie the Kid, with 9.62% of the vote, while the turn-of-the-millennium Burger King Kids Club Gang, unsurprisingly, finished dead last with 9.28%. That's actually not such a bad showing for mascots that many of us have already forgotten. Perhaps Burger King should consider giving the gang a 2020s reboot, though, since they're nowhere near as creepy as the King.