Mascots

mascot cheerleaders

Morgan Spurlock’s Oscar nominated documentary Supersize Me revealed American first-grade children knew more about Ronald McDonald than Jesus or George Washington.

London 2012 mascots Wenlock and Mandeville have magic skin so they can portray the Union Jack, a Beefeater uniform or sponsors’ colours.

Linux mascot Tux the penguin is open source, just like the software he represents. Users may use and modify the image under the Creative Commons licence.

Manchester United’s mascot Fred the Red is the club’s fifth attempt. We’ve seen Michael the Bank Street canary, Major the St Bernard dog, Billy the Goat, Hoppy Thorne (a one-legged man) and Jack Irons. Bizarrely, the canary was a goose, and was eaten for Christmas lunch by a fan in the 1890s.

Every US college has a mascot, such as Hokie Bird of Virginia Tech and Tim the Beaver of MIT. University of Florida’s Albert E Gator leads the team out on the football field in a 93,000 capacity stadium – bigger than Wembley.

Mascots originated in medieval heraldry. The earliest recorded example in England was in 1127 when Henry I hung a shield painted with golden lions around his neck.

The word mascot is derived from the Provençal word mascoto meaning anything that brings luck to a household. 

Mascots can be ordinary humans – think of The Colonel, Uncle Ben, Marlboro Man and Arthur Bell.

Hartlepool FC mascot H’Angus the Monkey ran for mayor of the town in 2002. He won and subsequently proved so good at the job that he was re-elected in 2005 with an increased majority.

In Japan, mascots are rife. Each regional jurisdiction has its own mascot, as do many police forces. The Tokyo Stock exchange has Arrows-boy, a ring-shaped trading board.