© 2010 zoe mw

© 2010 welovepandas

Halloween Mascots

The Colonel doesn’t seem to miss any opportunity to dress up and Halloween is no exception. My local Colonel Sanders must love Christmas more though as he’s already dressed as Father Christmas. The other mascot who loves fancy dress or cosplay is Peko-chan who can be seen wearing a cute little witches costume. Thanks to welovepandas and zoe mw for the photos.

Big Boy in Los Angeles © SpacePotato

Big Boy in Japan

Frisch's Big Boy © rachelkillsemo

Big Nick © Debra Jane Seltzer

Big Boy

Big Boy is one of the most iconic mascots in America. The chubby lad in his familiar red and white chequered overalls has been the face of the Big Boy franchise since 1936. The mascot is based on the likeness of Richard Woodruff, a chubby child who occasionally worked at Bobs’ Pantry sweeping the floor after school. One day Bob Wian (the owner) noticed Ben Washam; an animator from Warner Brothers who was doodling on a place-mat and he asked him to sketch a caricature of Richard in exchange for a free meal. Wian then developed the caricature into a cuter version and used it as the logo for the restaurant chain. The Big Boy character soon started appearing on the menus, signage and television adverts.

As the empire grew, Wian began to introduce the big boy brand to the American people. Outside each restaurant he placed a fibreglass mascot to appeal to children. Another clever idea that made the brand even more appealing to kids was to give away a free big boy comic which was also a menu. Kids ordered from the back then began reading the cartoons. The early issues were written by Stan Lee and drawn by Bill Everett. You can read more about the history of the big boy comic here.

Franchising of Big Boy started in the 1940′s but in 1967 Wian sold the franchise to Marriott who in turn sold it to the Elias Brothers in 1987. The history of the brand is fairly complex but I recommend reading tesg’s guide to big chain road food consumption for more information. Basically there are two chains of Big Boy in operation today which have rights in different territories and both chains have different versions of the Big Boy mascot. There’s the original Big Boy which is run by ‘Big Boy Restaurants, LLC’ and Frisch’s. Frisch’s Big Boy has some noticeable differences from the pose, to the uniform and face. Tell us in the comments which one you prefer.

Not only did the Big Boy brand conquer America it also made it’s way to Japan, opening it’s first restaurant in Osaka in 1978. One noticeable difference between the Japanese and American mascot is that in Japan the Big Boy doesn’t have a burger on his plate, instead he has what the Japanese call a hamburger steak, which is basically a burger topped with sauce and minus the bun.

The last image I’ve included show’s a character named Big Nick in Burbank Illinois who is surprisingly similar to Big Boy. Debra who took the photograph notes; “This is either a Big Boy statue that was heavily adapted or just a clever imitation. Note how the eyes are turned the other way, the different hair, and a plate of ribs instead of the burger.”

© 2010 Scott Beale

© 2010 franziska

© 2010 Anne-Gaëlle

French Fry Guy

The garish colours and exaggerated features make the French Fry Guy a bizarre and intriguing mascot. Probably the most unusual aspect about him, apart from the dodgy eye which could actually be an attempt at a wink is the fact that he’s eating a chip from his head in what maybe considered self-cannibalism.

The ‘French Fry Guy’ is a mascot I’ve seen more than any other but it’s history and origin aren’t well documented. The first time I saw the character was in 2003 at the Glastonbury festival, it was a mini-version which stood on the counter of a van selling chips and burgers. I soon started spotting him on travels around Europe and to seaside towns in England. After contacting the ‘Food Museum‘ I was told he originated from either Belgium, The Netherlands or Northern France. In these countries a typical fast food dish is a cornet of chips. It was customary to have a sign outside the shop usually of a chef holding a cornet of fries. To simplify the sign the chef was dispensed and the cornet of chips was turned into a character. The next logical step was to turn the character into a 3d fibreglass mascot, thus the ‘French Fry Guy’ was born.

© 2010 Gem

© 2010 danpeters

The French Fry Guy isn’t the only chip mascot around, I’ve included a few of my favourites which I’ve found on flickr; including the long legged, armless chip-man and a moustached monstrosity! If you’d like to see more photos of the character there is a small flickr group dedicated to him called the crazy french fries guy, there are also two other groups that collect self-cannibalistic mascots; scary beings eating themselves and cut me, wicked servant.

© 2010 Florian Schroiff

© 2010 Ricko

It’s not unusual for mascots to be used in art, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, Takeshi Murakami and many other contemporary artists have all referenced characters in their work playing with ideas of commercialism and pop culture, mixing high brow with what many consider low brow. On a recent visit to Tate Britain I saw the ‘Rude Britannia’ exhibition. One of the most compelling, fun and bizarre pieces of art on display was a sculptural piece titled ‘Death to the Fascist fruitboys’ by artists Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson. In the sculptural piece the main subject is none other than ‘French Fry guy’ or as the artists call him Chipboy. I recently sent an email to Shaun and Mally and asked them a few questions.

Can you tell me about the idea behind the sculptures?
Death to the Fascist Fruitboys is a sequel to the original Fascist Fruitboys of 2005 in this piece Chipboy (that’s what we nicknamed him!) is getting a good kicking by a bunch of skinheads (fruitboys being a play on bootboys) made from fruit and veg. The idea for the sculpture came from a place mat bought from a poundstore with images of heads made from vegetables but rather badly done, this appealed to our aesthetic – we saw them as poundstore Archimboldos! At the time much was being made in the media about five a day fruit and veg consumption, Jamie Olivers’ school dinner crusade, the demonising of the dreaded turkey twizzler and the scenes of school children desperately handing money through the school fence for mothers to buy them bags of chips in some kind of fucked up parody of a refugee or concentration camp…

In the Tate piece Death to the Fascist Fruitboys the Chipboy is getting his revenge and coming to the aid of his ‘Sausage-Boy’ friend based on another mascot also seen on the streets of Holland, the sausage piece has quite overt sexual overtones and looks fairly perverse lying in a pool of his own ketchup

When and where did you first see the ‘French Fry Guy’?
We first spied him on Old Compton street with his slightly wonky winking face (i do find him a tad creepy), as an advocate of fast and unhealthy food he seemed to be the ideal adversary for the Fascist Fruitboys. We managed to combine our interest in the high and low brow, youth culture and social comment into one piece of sculpture, since then we have spied our fry guy friend in different countries, he seems quite popular in the low countries. We have also seen small versions that sit on the counter notably in my mother in laws’ local chippy in Stoke-on-Trent.

Fascist Fruitboys 2005 (left) and Death to the Fascist Fruitboys 2010 (right) by Shaun Doyle & Mally Mallinson. Photo © 2010 Stephanie Rushton Mallinson

Thanks to flickr user farmsoundracer for the thumbnail image.

© 2010 usuallyjusta - Ronald says hello in Thailand Sah-wah-dee khrap

© 2010 Troy and Naomi

© 2010 Vidiot

© 2010 Billie Hara

2010 Goofygoof - Fur suit costume designed by Ron English

Ronald McDonald

Donald McDonald as he’s known in Japan first arrived in Ginza, Tokyo, in 1971. McDonald’s was experiencing a period of spectacular growth and had stores in every American state and five other countries. Den Fujita, who was amazed at the efficiency and popularity of the chain decided to introduce the restaurant to Japan. A brilliant businessman he dominated the hamburger market but he wasn’t without his controversial attitude. He famously declared, “The reason Japanese people are so short and have yellow skin is because they have eaten nothing but fish and rice for two thousand years.” Going further, he said, “If we eat McDonald’s hamburgers and potatoes for a thousand years we will become taller, our skin become white, and our hair blonde.” Despite a downturn in popularity in other countries the burger chain recorded net profits of ¥12.81 billion in 2009.

According to one survey, 96% of all school kids in the United States of America recognize Ronald. However a recent survey by Corporate Accountability International say that 47% of people they asked think it might be time for him to retire. Alfred David Klinger a retired physician and member of the group said “Ronald McDonald is a pied piper drawing youngsters all over the world to food that is high in fat, sodium and calories,” The organization has spearheaded a “Retire Ronald” campaign critiscing the company for targeting young children with their mascot. When asked would McDonalds be dropping Ronald, CEO Jim Skinner gave a defiant “no” and described their character as “a force for good”. Some people think the blame shouldn’t be placed squarely on Ronalds shoulders and that parents should take responsibility Robert Stutler, 26, said where and what children eat is ultimately up to their parents, not the character in the yellow suit.

Ronald McDonald first appeared in 1963 on a television commercial. The scary clown was played by Willard Scott who claims to have “created Ronald McDonald” according to his book Joy of Living:

At the time, Bozo was the hottest children’s show on the air. You could probably have sent Pluto the Dog or Dumbo the Elephant over and it would have been equally as successful. But I was there, and I was Bozo… There was something about the combination of hamburgers and Bozo that was irresistible to kids… That’s why when Bozo went off the air a few years later, the local McDonald’s people asked me to come up with a new character to take Bozo’s place. So, I sat down and created Ronald McDonald.[1]

Japanese people love to dress up, so its no surprise Ronald has provided inspiration for costumes, check out two great photos here and here. In the video at the bottom of the post you’ll see a sexy lady Ronald who appeared in 2005 advertising the Tomato McGrand. A recent campaign involving the character Mr James wasn’t as well revived and caused protests from vocal foreigners living in Japan.

Ron English regularly features an obese Ronald in his paintings and billboards, he even made some vinyl figures and a fur suit costume shown below.

Big Crabs in Japan

Japan has a thing for big crabs, a huge Japanese spider crab was recently caught measuring 10 feet from claw to claw. Two fur suit mascot crabs promote Kasumi a small town in Hyogo famous for catching crabs. And there’s even a super cool crab clock in Tokyo. These crabs however are dwarfed in size by the moving mascot signs which are found above many seafood restaurants in Japan.

The most famous and possibly the first was made by the restaurant Kani Doraku in 1960. The claws and legs move up and down as do the eyes. The mechanized mascot on Dontonbori Road in Osaka proved popular and led to many other restaurants installing their own. Huge moving crustaceans and other sea creatures can be found all over Japan, variations include octopus, squid and lobsters.

For an excellent collection of big American crab mascots check out this site.

Plastic Pigs

The lick lipping pig outside restaurants cheerfully encouraging customers to take a bite can be seen all around the world. This is a collection of Death wish pigs found in Japan. We have pigs outside clothes shops in Yokohama’s China Town, Pigs above ramen restaurant door ways, outside a nikuman stall, made into a rubbish bin, disguised as a lantern and even outside a hairdressers.

Colonel Sanders

In Japan KFC is an important place for Christmas. Many families visit the restaurant to eat the popular Christmas meal of deep fried chicken. So every year the colonel is dressed as Father Christmas to get people in the festive spirit. Throughout the year Colonel Sanders is dressed in other seasonal and unique outfits. Akihabara, famous for its numerous maid cafes, has had the colonel in a maid outfit. Other branches have dressed the colonel up as a samurai, a lobster and even Spiderman. Check out the set of all the different costumes I could find on Flickr.

In Osaka the colonel statue took on a new importance when excited Hanshin Tiger baseball fans celebrated their 1985 national championship series win by launching the mascot into Osaka’s Dotonbori River. Since then they have never won the series again and it’s losing streak is often blamed on the Curse of Colonel. After 24 years, on March 10, 2009, the mascot was recovered from the river, missing two feet, his left hand and the Colonel’s trademark glasses. It’s hoped the curse has now been lifted and the Hanshin Tigers luck will improve.?

UPDATE
On Friday the 19th of March 2010 the Colonel Sanders mascot was put back on display near the Hanshin Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya. The mascot is now behind a protective case as its very delicate. Sankei Shimbun has a video on youtube showing the mascot moved into place. It reminded me that I saw a great mobile phone strap in KFC that I wish I’d bought.