More often than not, mascots are cute and cuddly. The kind of creatures that children will run up to looking for pictures or that will try to keep smiles on the faces of fans, even when the home team is getting blown out. Then there’s Murph, Hasbro’s new mascot for NERF products.

Murph is in the same school of mascot as The Philadelphia Flyers Mascot, Gritty, or Pierre and King Cake Baby, who both came courtesy of the New Orleans Pelicans.

This brought about a divided reaction among potential consumers.

There were some dissenters.

But don’t feel bad for Murph. He (or she, we really don’t know for sure) has plenty of fans, as well. In fact, while several people were freaked out by Murph, far more people loved him.

Not all reactions fell into the positive or negative category. There were other observations.

Well, there you have it. Truth be told, getting a consensus about a product is a challenging, possibly impossible venture. Heck, go up to 1,000 people and tell them that the sky is blue and chances are, you’ll get at least a few people arguing with you.

No, the goal when releasing a product should not be consensus, but buzz. If people are talking, more often than not, that’s a good thing. Murph definitely has people talking.

[Alex Zalben]

About Michael Dixon

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