God bless us, we North Carolinians just don’t do mascots very well. Our signature one is a unwashed foot, for crying out loud. There’s also one inspired by terrible football, and another one honoring the soldiers … French soldiers. Then there’s Raleigh’s attempts.
And now the North Carolina Zoo has adopted a mascot inspired by the “green movement” (not exactly paragons of sense and good judgment). His name is … “Snotty.”
“Snotty”? What a great name!
As the Wall Street Journal explains, the mascot is to publicize the plight of the endangered snot otters, which are “nocturnal, mud-colored, prehistoric amphibians [that] look a bit like eels with stubby legs and can grow to be two feet long” and which have “toxic skin secretions” and are cannibals. The WSJ reports that
the zoo’s nonprofit arm is gamely trying to popularize the creature. In the works is an ambitious marketing campaign that could ultimately involve not just T-shirts and educational posters, but also sock puppets and Christmas ornaments.
Already up and wriggling is the mascot, Snotty, a big-tailed lizard look-alike with brown skin, beady eyes and stubby teeth.
He made his debut–with mixed results–at the New River Celebration in Laurel Springs, N.C., this past summer.
The WSJ says that “Snotty’s appearances at the zoo are limited to areas where real animals can’t see him, so as not to ‘freak them out,’ says public-relations manager Rod Hackney.” This being the NC Zoo, the places where real animals can’t see him (and where he can’t see the animals) would be pretty much the entire zoo.
