A study in the UK released last week said that some beloved food mascots such as Tony the Tiger and Coco the Monkey are contributing to children’s obesity. But they’re not the only mascots who seem capable of misdeeds. For example, take a look at these delinquents below.

Mayor McCheese
Sells: McDonald’s
Most Likely to: Get your child to wonder how delicious their own head must be
You’d expect a political figure in a major economic power like McDonaldland to be above reproach, but you’d be mistaken. Think about it. How does a lifelong criminal like the Hamburglar escape the law time and time again in a land where 90% of the populace is a food item themselves? Do you know the outrage that must be in every issue of the Daily Hamburgian? But for some reason the police force can’t wrangle the most incompetent (yet persistent) criminal of all time. Smells like corruption to me.
Plus how can you trust an adult dressed in a sash? Maybe a beauty pageant contestant. Or a guy dressed like a New Year’s baby. But anybody else…notsomuch.

The M&Ms
Sells: M&Ms
Most Likely to: Be voiced by Jon Lovitz
I kind of feel bad for these two because they have it tough. Not only are people always chasing them around, trying to take a bite out of their skull, but they also depend upon eating miniature versions of themselves for sustenance. For example:
Now if those M&Ms would do that to their own people, imagine what they’d do to you as soon as you turn your back. Have you been roasted like a pig as two talking M&Ms wear Tiki masks and dance around you? Well, probably not because they’re not real, but still. It’d be a pretty cool visual. If not slightly uncomfortable for you. I think you’d be delicious though, if it’s any consolation.

Colonel Sanders
Sells: KFC, Slaves
Most Likely to: Curse the day Lincoln was born; Drink mint juleps
Yes, I know what you’re thinking…if I can’t trust a slave owner-looking dapper dressed Southern man who fills my arteries with sweet fatty fried breading, who can I trust? It’s counterintuitive, yes, but take a look at this quote from a recent story about his much-discussed “secret recipe”:
Vials of the herbs and spices are also stored in the secret filing cabinet.
“The smell is overwhelming when you open it,” said one of two keepers of the recipe in an interview at company headquarters.
Others have tried to replicate the recipe, and occasionally someone claims to have found a copy of Sanders’ creation. The executive said none have come close, adding the actual recipe would include some surprises.
Secret cabinets, overwhelming smells, and something what would “surprise me”. I don’t think I’d be putting a lot of stock in my longterm health if I’m a KFC regular. On the plus side, rat droppings have a shelflife of 50 years, so their presence as a secret ingredient will only be inside of you until approximately the time Miley Cyrus becomes our first female President.

Kool-Aid Man
Sells: Kool-Aid
Most Likely to: Make your child run headfirst into a wall in an attempt to break through and provide the people within with delicious diabetes-inducing nectar
It’s always been a guideline by which I live my life: Never swallow the bodily fluids of anyone who busts into your home. I had to learn that the hard way. Now far be it from me to say that a Dane Cook bit really speaks to my experience in life, but this clip pretty much sums up the poor logic associated with the Kool-Aid Man’s antics.
He may have good intentions, but I wouldn’t leave that living bowl of juice to tend to my children. They’d end up disoriented, sad, and covered in red, viscous liquid. And while that would certainly prepare them for their future vocations as prostitute murderers, it still doesn’t seem like the best idea. And I’d rather they learn that skill-set on the job.

The Noid
Sells: Domino’s Pizza
Most Likely to: Touch you inappropriately with one of those plastic tables in the middle of a pizza
The Noid was simply one confused individual. His job was to get people to buy pizzas, but he’d steal them or attempt to destroy them. Any mascot that has a slogan that explicitly tells me to avoid it should probably be kept out of my life. Check out his creative, albeit misguided, attempt at taking an innocent pizza’s life below:
But if he’s selling people pizzas, why would he be trying to steal or ruin them? Perhaps to get them to buy more pizza, in which case…pretty clever. But if he was just blowing it up in crazy ways for his deranged amusement, which seems more logical, then he just has issues.
Refrigerator Raider
Sells: Milk, I think
Most Likely to: Not make any sense. At all.
Don’t know who that little scamp in the clip above is? Neither did I until one of the members of my research team (i.e. people on IM whom I ask “HAY CAN YOU HALP ME WITH LIST”) pointed him my way.
Apparently, Refrigerator Raider was part of an ad campaign by the American Dairy Council in the early 90s whose goal was, judging by the commercial, to lock your children in the refrigerator so that they get their daily dose of milk. And just like he loved and left the cake and milk in the fridge, Refrigerator Raider made one appearance and disappeared, never to be seen again. But you just know he’s lurking out there, with his cyborg eyes, announcing his name to anyone within earshot.

Chester Cheetah
Sells: Cheetos
Most Likely to: Introduce your child to intravenous cheese dust use
You look at Chester Cheetah and his exuberant energy and his unflinching speed and endurance and, presumably, crazy schemes involving awful video games. For example, this video game…”Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool” (note: for actual enjoyment of the awfulness of Chester, turn the sound off. For unintentional comedy in the form of someone desperately trying to imitate the Angry Video Game Nerd but failing miserably, keep the sound on).
All drug jokes aside, seriously, it’d probably be less messy to do mountains of coke like Al Pacino in Scarface than eating a bag of Cheetos. It always struck me as near impossible to eat Cheetos without ending up looking like I crawled through an orange-dyed attic for an hour and a half. So not only was I eating myself into an early grave, but I looked like a complete slob afterwards. No wild cat with amazingly cool sunglasses should be able to persuade me into such a fate. But look, he can dunk! That is SO in my face! I’m sold!
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Is there a mascot that touched you inappropriately? Leave it in the comments. And if you like mascots, you may want to see Durex’s mascot, or the perverse man in a bear suit with JoJo. Or if you’re a fatty interested in food, you may want to look at the 7 most bizarre McDonald’s commercials or the Hot Beef Sundae.











October 6, 2008
#1
I can’t believe the Hamburglar wasn’t on here. I mean, really.
October 6, 2008
#2
Come on, there were no pretenses to what the Hamburglar was all about. If you’re victimized by the Hamburglar, it’s no one’s fault but your own.
October 21, 2008
#3
Clara. Peller.
March 3, 2009
#4
Omg.
I must thank you for this. I was just talking to friends about funny and catch commercials. The refrigerator raider came to mind and they didn’t know who it was. Thanks for the video!
Also. Ever looked at a box of Smacks cereal?
There’ is a hip hopping frog with a long tongue who is always out to get some smacks. He’s chasing them smacks like crazy.
Yet, smacks look example like vaginas. They make sure to show you this in the commercials and on the box.
Some think thats stretching it … others don’t. Either way it’s funny to think about!
http://www.mytenda.com/tenda/images/honeysmacks.jpg <~ look at the cereal!