Grantland’s NBA mascot reporter, Zach Lowe, broke the news this week of the Sixers’ new mascot, a fuzzy blue “dog” named Franklin who likes to dunk and do tweets. I say “dog” because ... look at this:
The Sixers’ new mascot is a blue ‘dog’ creature designed by children
Miss @SixersFranklin's unveil? : http://t.co/NS4b5uH3Yt pic.twitter.com/NeTajyoE3Z
— Philadelphia 76ers (@Sixers) February 10, 2015 That’s not a dog. I’ve seen a dog before. This is what a dog looks like:
Franklin is more of a cat/kangaroo hybrid with an eerily vaginal mouth situation. If we’re pretending that’s a dog, then the nose is in totally the wrong place and the ears don’t make sense at all. I’m willing to suspend disbelief for blue fur and clothes but COME ON THIS IS BASIC ANATOMY. I guess this is what happens when your focus group is SO MANY CHILDREN:
The Sixers consulted several experts, including Dave Raymond, the original Phillie Phanatic, but they handed most of the creative duties to 1,000 kids ages 6 to 10 in the Delaware Valley, says Tim McDermott, the team’s chief marketing officer.
...
The team asked the kids everything: Should the mascot have fur? What color should it be? Should it dunk? Should it be tall? Fat? Short?
The team revised designs and narrowed the field after each round of meetings with local kids. Ben Franklin was out, but dogs were in. The kids liked fluffy things and blue things, and the Sixers zeroed in on the Franklin character.
Children have terrible taste and should not be in charge of extremely important real-world things like fuzzy blue mascots. This is a travesty. He can’t even dunk right:
The Sixers unveiled a new mascot, Franklin, who narrowly avoided dunking disaster. My report: http://t.co/8Rk4y46PT2 pic.twitter.com/Z5tpm1bCDS
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) February 10, 2015 See More:
