I’m Diana. I’m an ant.
Technically, I’m a fighter ant. Or rather, I’m supposed to be one. But that only happens when something’s happening and I have to grab the weapon. If not, when I’m not fighting, I’m training. When I’m not training, I’m sleeping. When I’m not sleeping, I’m dancing.
Don’t laugh! I’m a pretty okay dancer. *giggles*
You guys know that there’s a workshop called “Dancing with Diana” that’ will be happening at this hotel at Cuscaden Road.
If you’re attending it, thank you and I’ll look forward to see you. If you’ve not but you’re thinking about it, hey, why hesitate? Don’t worry, you and I are not going to literally dance around the room. (The tech guys tell me they’ll need to create a 3D model of you, put lots of balls around you and import into my world if you want to dance with me.)
So now you’re wondering, then why is the workshop called such? Because, guys, you’re going to create a character of your own who will dance with me. Yup, you read it right. Whoever it is you create will be my dance partner- for the day.
Just one thing though, guys. Please don’t call the character you create a MASCOT. It hurts his or her feelings. You know why? Because your character can feel pain. I am NOT a mascot either. If I were one, I wouldn’t be a fighter ant. I wouldn’t be able to dance and I certainly would not be having a one-sided conversation with you right here, right now.
You might insist, “But Diana, you ARE one!”
Okay, let’s have a simplified theory about what mascots are from one of the most easily accessible online resources in your world- Wikipedia.
“A mascot is any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fictional, representative spokespeople for consumer products, such as the rabbit used in advertising and marketing for the General Mills brand of breakfast cereal, Trix.”
See the last line there? See where it says, “…fictional, representative spokespeople for consumer products...”
That’s the major difference between me- an anthropomorphic character- and a mascot. A mascot is the product’s spokesperson, which means it talks well about your product, uses it, celebrates it, endorses it. But the mascot does not have a history of its own. Humans call this history part mythology. There’s no myth in a mascot. A mascot doesn’t have thoughts, doesn’t have feelings, doesn’t have a backstory. It’s just… there.
I know the wizards who created me could go into lengthy discussions and drop names and brands all over the place but there’s just a single difference between a mascot and a character. Well, actually, there’re two differences. One is Value. The other is Emotional Connection.
If you’re still raring to dispute it all, let’s just talk about someone that I admire. Born in 1974, she hails from Japan and is a white Japanese bobtail cat with a red bow. Okay! Now you know who I’m talking about.
Yup, Hello Kitty. Forty years old and she’s going strong. Two years ago, she was valued at $7 billion a year on rights alone. That’s Value. Why? Because she’s bright, she’s kind-hearted, she’s close with Mimmy, she loves homemade apple pie. She’s got a father, mother, grandfather and grandmother. She IS the mascot of friendship, no doubt, but do I love her for the fact that she represents friendship? Nope. I love her for the fact that she loves homemade apple pie. I’ve never tried that before. (We don’t get apple pies very much in the tree house…) So, in the same way, when you humans fall in love with Hello Kitty, are you falling in love with what she represents (if she was a mascot in the first place) or are you attracted because she’s not a human, but not quite a cat either? That’s Emotional Connection.
It’s hard, I know, to separate the differences between a representative and a character. But let me put it this way, if Hello Kitty were the spokesperson for a pen and that was it, she’d be way less iconic today. But she’s in such great commercial demand, and that’s because she was never created to be for a single product or a single service or to serve a targeted marketing campaign. She was created to be a character; an anthropomorphic character. Just like me.
So, like I said, coming to this workshop is to enable you to create a character of your own. With what, you ask, and isn’t that animation but this isn’t an animation workshop! I know. With your own product or service, you’ll create your character. And whoever it is, do remember, make him or her internalize your product’s attributes and abilities into themselves.
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