[Interesting Trope] Attempts at fanservice/virality that failed not because they were hated, but because nobody noticed them or cared at all.

[u/mp3help]

1) Hoopy the Hoop, Portal (2007) When you defeat GLaDOS and her room is destroyed at the end of the game, debris rains down in the final cutscene, including a big metal hoop that bounces around a bit. Developer Erik Wolpaw said the team dubbed it "Hoopy the Hoop" and expected it to become the big meme of Portal. Of course, none of the fans paid much attention to the hoop since "The Cake is a Lie" became the biggest meme of the game, and overall one of the biggest video game memes of all time.

2) Burgh, Pokemon Black and White (2010) When designing Burgh, developer Yusuke Ohmura said Gamefreak had many of their female employees give input on his design to create their ideal handsome man. However, as someone who's been in the Pokemon fandom for almost 3 decades, in the 15+ years since Pokemon Black and White released, I have personally never seen any fans swoon over Burgh, or even mention him in general. If anything, characters like N and Colress are far more well-known within the fandom as the most handsome and beloved male characters of Pokemon Gen 5.

[u/Wardock8]

The one with the emu right?

[u/TascasDemise → u/Wardock8]

Looked it up, it's Liberty with a mascot called Biberty. Guess I'm fortunate to have completely missed it

[u/StrykerGryphus → u/TascasDemise]

Oh my god why'd they design it with teeth

[u/Wardock8 → u/TascasDemise]

Yeah that's what I thought but I also didn't wanna give them free advertising. That company is so weird, this is like their third mascot.

[u/ColeDelRio → u/TascasDemise]

I too have also never seen this before in my life and I feel blessed.

[u/ERedfieldh → u/Wardock8]

I'm kinda fond of the Limu Emu and Doug commercials as they are kinda satirical and surreal on their own and just have the unfortunate issue of an insurance commercial tacked on.

[u/therealchadius → u/ERedfieldh]

That's what happens to all the awesome insurance mascots. Flo, the Aflac Duck, Geico Gekko, even that old animated insurance icon who keeps getting into fanfics with her reformed evil clone. Because how do you make insurance cool? You... can't, really.

[u/brother_of_menelaus → u/therealchadius]

Erin Esurance was just hot. More companies should just make fuckable mascots with the intention of rule 34 doing their work for them

[u/Nerevarine91 → u/brother_of_menelaus]

“For God’s sake, sex and auto-insurance are not two things that go together.”

This is the quote from the Esurance public relations manager I found on the Wikipedia page about it 😂

[u/brother_of_menelaus → u/Nerevarine91]

SAYS WHO?

[u/therealchadius → u/brother_of_menelaus]

That's the name, that car insurance got so much exposure.

ESPECIALLY with Erin and her reformed evil clone...

[u/The-Stomach-in-3D → u/Wardock8]

OK but i actually like the lemu lemu commercials for the most part this new fuzzball guy is dumb as fuck though

[u/ShadowShedinja → u/Wardock8]

Same company, yeah.