Takes More Than a Great Costume to Make an Outstanding Mascot

Have you noticed that some mascots with the best costumes are about as exciting as watching fresh paint drying? The quality of the costume may help enhance the ambiance and panache of a team mascot, but it cannot work magic.

The bottom line: Great mascots need more than outstanding costumes to entertain and motivate players and fans. They need–personality and bizarre behavior!

Some of the best mascots have the most marginal costumes, but became famous for entertaining all who watched them. Just think for a moment about the iconic San Diego Chicken. The costume was not very cool or funny. Yet the San Diego Chicken became famous for entertaining audiences young and old.

Another example is the Phillie Phanatic. The costume: absurd. The Phanatic: humongously entertaining. From the days the Phanatic outrageously taunted the Boston Red Sox, the Philly Phanatic has been one of the favorite, most entertaining mascots onthe planet.

When the Philadelphia Phillies finally retires the Phanatic, there will be a spot in the mascot Hall of Fame waiting for him. This example is further proof that it’s the mascot’s personality that counts, not the quality of the costume.

Of course, the Phillie Phanatic makes good use of his costume to get laughs. But, it remains the Phanatic’s personality that translates into action and entertainment. There are others, devoid of outstanding costumes, that manage to entertain fans regularly.

For example, Jaxson de Ville, this year’s favorite mascot, but the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars favorite every day, has a cute, but not great costume. In fact, Jaxon’s outfit is neither outrageous nor funny. Yet, Jaxson was more entertaining than the Jaguars team this season. The Jaguars were awful; Jaxson was magnificent. He was the only claim to fame for the Jacksonville Jaguars during the 2014 season.

See Jaxon’s pic displayed below the title of this article. You be the judge. Was it his costume or his winning personality?