People Find These To Be The Most Annoying Fast Food Mascots

Food mascots are...weird. The condensation of a brand into a figure, usually lacking any sense of humanity, leaves one faced with the rapacious impulse to reduce a person into a wildly obnoxious tagline. Also, they can just be too in your face, too annoying. So, we asked our American readers which of the major fast food mascots they found most annoying. With 655 responses, the results were somewhat expected.

The least irksome mascot was Wendy of Wendy's with 6.41 percent of the vote going to her. The next tier of hated mascots was filled with Little Caesar, Jack from Jack in the Box, and Colonel Sanders, with 13.44 percent, 13.89 percent, and 15.88 percent disliking them respectively. According to the survey, the second most annoying mascot out of the fast food giants is Ronald McDonald, with 23.82 percent of people bestowing on him the honor. Fair enough, he's a clown and has been around long enough to wear down even the thickest layer of patience. Beating him, however, with 26.56 percent of the vote is another familiar face.

The King of Burger King.

The reason just over one in four people harbor negative feelings about The King is that he's, well, creepy. Something about the frozen bobble-head face appearing in advertisements from the late-2000s that included a Spongebob Squarepants-themed "parody" of "Baby Got Back," watching you through your bedroom window, and appearing in bed next to you while you sleep, all of which you can find on YouTube, just doesn't mesh well with convincing people to try your burgers.

While one may be tempted to claim that these ads worked in the way that strange ad campaigns get people to talk about them, thus building awareness, the fact is The King was just a bad character. As Slate reported in 2012, by 2011, Burger King left its partnership with the ad agency Crispin, which fell apart a year afterwards, and retired The King. Still, evidently, Burger King later recanted as even last year, The King was promoting the PS5 giveaway. So, we may find The King off putting, but Burger King seems set on owning it.