I'd be willing to sponsor the "advertising mascot who revolves their life around the product" concept if it's viable. It's a fairly common gag for a lot of campaigns. Most of the examples are speculative snark, but I know Progressive, that one "I named my baby avocado" commercial, and a lot of cereal mascots could qualify already. Some on-page examples that could qualify depending on how they're played:
- SafeAuto's mascot speculates that all the people in a coffee shop are simultaneously using their computers to switch insurance providers online.
- Decades ago, Swedish coffee brand Gevalia used to have commercials with the Gevalia family. They talked about nothing but coffee, and seemed to like it that way. The plot of the commercials would be like this one: Before the father leaves for work, he is told not to forget to buy coffee. The mom thinks that she'd better buy some while she's out, since the father probably will forget. Everybody else in the family thinks so as well, and once they get home they realize that not only did everybody buy coffee just to be sure — the dad actually remembered to buy coffee! What a laugh!
- Turned Up To Eleven and Played for Laughs on Ned & Stacey:
Ned Dorsey: Uh, hon, these don't taste like Family Goodness Biscuits.Wife: I tried a different brand tonight. Hope you don't mind.Ned Dorsey: Mind?! Of course I mind, damnit! I want Family Goodness Biscuits! Get out of here, you wrong biscuit buying slut!
- A series of ads by Progressive auto insurance put their spokeswoman, Flo, in everyday situations with her family (all played by the same actress). Flo is apparently so obsessed with her work, she plugs it into every mundane conversation.
- A series of SpongeBob SquarePants commercials were made for the show's tenth anniversary that talked about how SpongeBob improved people's lives. In one, a family staying at a hotel comes in with SpongeBob-themed luggage. It turns out that the bellhops also watch the show, and they fight over who is going to get to bring the family's luggage to the room.
- A radio ad for the site doublemyspeed.com has everyone who's used the site being able to say nothing other than the site's name at double speed, and the boy in one of these families apparently goes around the neighborhood all day proselytizing about it. This is for a site that's supposed to do nothing more than remove malware/viruses from your computer.
I think for this to really be a trope, the characters should be intentionally depicted as comically obsessive over the product, to the point it permeates every aspect of their life. If we only see one silly aspect of their life, like talking about Activia during a club meeting, it doesn't really count.
Edited by mightymewtron on May 1st 2021 at 2:47:23 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Trix Rabbit was on my mind, yeah, since he obsessively pursues Trix to the detriment of any other food or activity, but I'm not certain about that yet.
For an example of what isn't an example, Barney and Fred from the Fruity/Cocoa Pebbles commercials don't count cuz the campaign shows them having other interests and just eating cereal in the process. Compare the Meerkat also wouldn't count cuz the characters have lives that are unrelated to the website.
Flo is the best example because her entire house is Progressive-themed and she and her family are nearly incapable of talking about anything but Progressive to the point that one commercial has her lose a dare to not talk about it for a minute. I would also point to the Sonny from the Cocoa Puffs ads as he sees Cocoa Puffs in everything.
Edited by mightymewtron on May 1st 2021 at 2:56:26 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Yeah! It definitely feels like something we could describe without delving into complaining. Any long-running ad campaign that doesn't delve into What Were They Selling Again? is bound to resort to this if it expands the character's life while still having them constantly promote the product.
I'd also give it a new name cuz the current's pretty non-indicative. Maybe Obsessive Mascot?
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.If you want to do it, sure. I know that the current thing should be cut.
Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)Cut because of how badly written it is. If there's anything to salvage, I guess it could be added to the Trope Idea Salvage Yard.
Edit: Also, If You Like X Files was already cut between this thread's creation and when it was unlocked.
Edited by GastonRabbit on May 1st 2021 at 5:16:10 AM
I got a rock for Halloween.Can I make the TLP for Obsessive Mascot and transfer some examples of this trope there?
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Here's the TLP.
Still working out exactly how to define it, especially because I want it to be distinct from The Power of Cheese (being more about the character's behavior than the product's depicted worth).
So, while this TLP is going on, I guess we can go ahead and dewick/cut the current trope.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallIs there anything left on the trope page that would fit the TLP?
Also I'd rather wait til the new trope launched to dewick so I can easily swap the old trope with the new trope.
Edited by mightymewtron on May 4th 2021 at 8:34:14 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Though maybe we should wait for Mew's trope to launch to make it easier on her like she wants. At least, we can wait to dewick it.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallThe only wicks were Playing With, indices, and Compares. Took care of them all.
If we need to halt cutting until we got everything, we can do that.
Edit: Whoops, apologies. Time to list off where the old wicks were (where we can implement the new trope, of course).
- Compares on The Power of Cheese, Cereal Vice Reward
- PlayingWith.Sex For Product (under Enforced)
- Advertising Tropes for index (obviously)
- Not sure on Character Shill
Edit 2: Mew messaged with the full wick rundown.
Edited by Berrenta on May 5th 2021 at 10:04:25 AM

Created in 2009 (on the same date as If You Like X Files which is also likely to be cut, which makes me suspect that somebody just threw up a bunch of hasty advertising "tropes" one after the other back then), but only has 8 wicks, none of which are work pages. Note that Advertising Tropes tend to suffer when it comes to crosswicking, especially those that were written before we had a lot of specific work pages for advertising campaigns.
Even besides that, the page, as written, has some vague examples and seems to complain about people in a commercial talking too much about...the product in the commercial. I think there may be a trope here for characters who are comically defined by their love for the product (i.e. Flo from Progressive) but that might need to be done from the ground up via TLP.
Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 23rd 2021 at 4:49:14 AM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.