From the Old Spice Guy to Progressive's Flo, brand spokescharacters can become household names in their own right and help make their brands leaders in their industries.
But there is a fine line between brand mascots getting your attention and being annoying and creepy. The truth is that there are far fewer brand mascots that we like than we dislike.
Even the some of America's oldest and most well-known brand spokescharacters aren't liked all that much. At least that's what E-Poll Market Research—whose E-Score© Character service ranks characters on awareness, appeal, and other attributes—found when they surveyed 1,500 people, aged 13 to 49, about 1,600 well-known characters.
To discover which mascots are the least favorite, E-Poll first asks respondents whether they know a specific character. If they do, they are then asked whether they like or dislike the mascot, and to classify what other adjectives they would use to describe the character.
Characters were ranked by the percentage of respondents who disliked them.
10. Geico's Money You Save (37% Disliked)
Geico already had their Gecko and Caveman mascots firmly in place when they decided to bring on this odd character: a stack of bills with eyes. 37% of respondents disliked the little guy, despite the fact that his theme song is the Rockwell classic "Somebody's Watching Me."
So what didn't people like about him? Most people thought he was just boring.
9. Domino's The Noid (38% Disliked)
Dominos brought back The Noid—their spokescharacter from the 1980s—last summer to star in a video game on Facebook.
While they were hoping that their retro nod would make customers nostalgic, it seems that most respondents weren't so charmed. In fact, more than half of respondents described The Noid as annoying.
8. Esurance's Erin (39% Disliked)
Despite most people describing Esurance's Erin as sexy, she is still one of the most disliked characters of the 1600 in E-Poll's database.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
Please follow Advertising on Twitter and Facebook.
See Also:
- Tom Mockridge, The Man Replacing James Murdoch, Knows Where News Corp.'s Bodies Are Buried
- WATCH: These Adorable Little Girls Recreate The Most Famous Beer Commercial Ever
- These Wonderful Old New York Ad Murals Are Still Trying To Sell Us Stuff From The 1800s