#oje direction fan fiction

[coreastories]

A Drive Around the Coast

Well, several drives.

They go on a trip.

Like normal people, they get to know--and love--more about each other. 

The King: Eternal Monarch RPF (Real People Fiction) Yep, this is LMH/KGE. Don’t worry. No cringe. Never. :) 

Inspired by July 13 - My Love By My Side

Extended MEGA version of Twitter thread fic I posted on July 13

With thanks to Joyce @singersleeps on Twitter and RCL. On July 16, she shared her translation of the Weibo speculative posts that in turn inspired how I could extend the thread fic I originally posted July 13 on Twitter. 

For @collectsfallenstars and Patty @pateetsie again, because RPF shenanigans, and just because. 

Companion to A Ride Along the River, but can standalone. 

ON AO3 for kudos and download :) 

July 9

He was such a tall tree man that when she got into the driver’s seat, she fully stretched her legs and her feet just thumped uselessly on the car floor. She couldn’t reach the pedals at all. 

He laughed his weird laugh while he adjusted the seat for her. 

Once he had put on his seatbelt and the van passed them, she started the car and followed. 

They were on a coastal road now and everyone’s business was to drive along it, so both of them felt safe enough to open their windows. They grinned at each other at the delicious wind that buffeted their hair and faces. 

It was so good. She felt so good. 

She handed him her phone and she pursed her lips and tried not to smile when he expertly navigated it, and in another second, the speakers played exactly the song she had in mind for a drive like this, with someone like this, on a trip like this, in a life like theirs. 

She realized he was looking at her to see if he’d done right, and she scrunched her nose and smiled. Without taking her eyes off the windshield, she reached for his hand, and it was already there waiting to catch hers. 

Sometimes their sync scared her. Or was it how he was so attuned to what she wanted? She had never felt so carefully... observed. He observed her. Out of the corner of his eye or with both those beautiful eyes, he saw and catalogued everything. 

And when all this began it had made her feel conscious of what he saw and whether he liked it. 

And apparently he did. Everything about her. Her truest self. She hadn’t hidden anything, to test him, to test herself, and he’d passed every test. 

So now she was well beyond the point of being conscious and well into the territory of getting used to it and loving it. 

He flipped the visor for her just as the angle of the afternoon sun started poking her in the eyes.

He offered her a sip of water just when she felt a little parched.  

He reached across her waist to shut all the windows just when she felt the wind start to bite and sting. 

This time, she turned to him with an eyeroll. “I could have done that.” 

“You didn’t have to. I can do all the buttons for you.” 

It took three seconds. Then he realized the ridiculousness of what he said. The lip bite came first. Then the grin. Then the laughter. 

She kept both hands on the wheel, trying to keep her eyes open as she shook with her own giggling. His hand was on her shoulder, keeping her upright because her body was curving over toward the dashboard. 

She ended up pulling over because her fit of giggles refused to stop. 

He was still chuckling, probably more at her laughter now. She felt him put her ball cap on her head, put his on, and then she saw him climb out and round the car to her door. She opened it herself but she was still too far gone to do much else.  

She had both hands over her cheeks now, alternately covering and fanning her face as she tried to calm down. He gently grabbed both wrists and pulled her up and out of the car. 

The wind helped. The change in temperature helped. His closeness helped. She took a deep breath and she was done. 

The visors of their ball caps collided and dovetailed as he peered down at her face. “It wasn’t that funny.”

This just triggered another giggling fit and she pretty much collapsed against him with her hands sliding from his chest to his waist so she could hold on to his hoodie and not fall to her knees. 

He held her and laughed a little again, rubbing her back a bit. “What?” 

She took deep breaths. When she was sure that answering wouldn’t make her giggle again, she said, “I… I remember the… the... button scene. You know…”

“Ahh.” And he grinned. 

“Yeah.” She ducked her head because he was looking at her intently and-- just when she thought she was getting used to it, he always managed to show her she was still not used to it. Would she ever be? His gaze was so intense, so unbelievable, because it made her feel like all he saw was her.  

He twisted her ball cap on her head, and once she was visible to that gaze, he said, “Our first kiss.” 

Almost on instinct as a defense, she said, “That wasn’t us.” 

He blinked. “Oh. Right. So when was it us then?” 

She looked up at him and realized, after all their text messages and phone calls, that they’d never talked about this yet. 

Instead of pressing in that direction, he pushed her gently in another-- toward the car. “Let’s get you back in the car. It’s getting a bit cold. I’ll drive now.” 

“But I only drove for an hour.” He had already driven the two hours from Seoul to their meeting point. 

“You drove a bit more than that.” He gestured for her to get into the passenger side. “I think we’re less than thirty minutes away now.” He adjusted the seat before getting in. 

Only when he was seated did she drop back in. She took off her ball cap and tossed it to the back seat, where it joined his. The caps sat bill to bill like they were having their own dialogue. 

She faced him just as he started the car. “It was me when we kissed by the window.” 

And she was glad the sun was going down, because she felt her cheeks burning. 

He maneuvered the car back onto the road. As soon as they were cruising again, he turned to her for a bit and reached for her hand. And she loved it that whenever he did that, his eyes always sought hers first. For permission. Or maybe he just really enjoyed turning her to mush by making contact with his eyes before making contact with his hand. Or with his lips. 

She really was thankful it was getting dark, especially when he said what he said next.  

“It was me when we kissed by the bed.”

He squeezed her hand. 

July 10

She was sitting in the passenger seat on her side, clutching her middle. The lights from the street lamps showed him she was grimacing a little. 

“I think I ate too much.” 

He grinned. “They served too much.” He cursed when he hit a random pothole. “Sorry about that. You okay?”

Her expression and position hadn’t changed. He was afraid that would unsettle her currently full stomach. Apparently not. She really was made of sterner stuff. All she said was, “Let’s not have bibimbap again while on this trip. Not like that anyway. How many side dishes was it? I lost count.” 

He laughed. He remembered how well she ate. He loved that she loved food and had no compunction about eating with enthusiasm, wherever she happened to be. They’d booked a dining room at the restaurant so it was just them and their teams, so she probably felt at home. But he had seen her eat with everyone else before. She was consistent with everyone, everywhere. 

Her unchanging character was what intrigued and charmed him when he finally met the person behind those magnificent and diverse roles. 

“I’ll grill meat tomorrow. The guys got fresh fish and ojing-eo and saeu, too.” 

“That sounds awesome,” she said, carefully sitting up and adjusting her seatbelt across her body. “Is it weird to fantasize about food when I’m still about to burst from food?”

He laughed again. She could always make him laugh. “No.”  

“You lost weight during the shoot too, right?”

He nodded. “About eight pounds, I think. You?”

“About the same. Do you want ice cream?” 

She was smiling as the light of the convenience store fluorescent lamps filled the car. He pulled over, shaking his head and grinning. She flitted out of the car fast-- for someone with a heavy stomach-- and he wondered if she should have put her ball cap on. But sometimes being in plain sight helped better than any attempt to hide. People didn’t expect you to be bare-faced if you really were a celebrity. 

And it was a godsend that everyone wore masks right now. 

She came back to the car and he didn’t need to ask her if anything happened. She was usually blushing and a little unsettled when she was recognized. She was shy. Eight years in the industry and she still blushed when she was at the center of attention off-camera. 

But now she neither blushing nor rattled. Just excited with her loot. 

He started the car and they ate ice cream. She fed him as he drove, and he pretended nonchalance that he was sharing her plastic spoon. 

That was new. 

Another new thing to add to the list so far. 

Sharing a blanket when they were all hanging out together. 

Good night kisses before they went to their separate rooms with the team-- girls and boys together. (No funny business on this trip-- he took care of his people).  

Her hand playing with his hair and ear when he laid his head on her lap.

The cute way she nodded when he agreed with what he or anyone else said. 

The silken softness of the skin where her back met her nape, when he lost thought one time she sat by his leg while he was on the couch, and he didn’t realize where his hand had gone and stayed. 

She must have felt him freeze, because before he could casually remove his hand, hers was there on his wrist, stroking and patting his arm, before letting go and going back to strumming the guitar on her lap. 

He moved his hand to her shoulder, but his thumb was stubborn and stayed glued to that new delicious place. 

July 11

He leaned back on the passenger seat and closed his eyes, but he was grinning. She took her hand off the wheel for a second to poke him at his side. He dodged the second poke and caught her hand. 

“What?” he asked, eyes still closed. 

“Did you really not plan that? They just also happened to be here?” 

“Yep.”

“I don’t believe you.” But she was smiling. It was so good to see the girls. The three of them hadn’t really gotten the chance to spend more time together during filming, but both women had become close friends. One she shared an agency with, and the other was such a nice and warm unnie. 

He had driven them to the bay today, with their staff staying behind at the villa, completely off the hook for their own plans. The bay was a perfect, secluded place for a sunset walk, and her heart recognized the romance of it and was thrilled at it. 

And then she saw two people approaching them, crossing the sandbar, waving and calling out annyeong. 

They had dinner right there, on a blanket on the sand, wrapping meat and sides in sangchu as fast as they talked, catching up with each other as the sun set before them. 

And throughout all that, he had sat slightly behind her, his back perpendicular to hers, so that whenever she leaned back she had something to lean on, and whenever her hand rested on the blanket, it was beside his, their fingers touching or overlapping. 

He let the women talk. He asked and answered questions, but for the most part, he let them talk. At some point he even leaned on her, so her instinct had been to lean back on him, and they stayed like that, until it got too dark and they packed up everything with the light of their phones. 

She and the girls had promised to meet again in Seoul. Her mind was already buzzing on how exactly to get that done. 

But she was also completely, entirely in awe of the man napping--or pretending to nap-- beside her as she drove his car. She hadn’t expected this sunset to turn out like this, with new friends she’d sorely missed. 

But then he always did surprise her. Not always in big ways like this one. But in quiet, small ways. 

Like how he always got embarrassed when their teams teased them. 

And how he intently listened to her all the time and looked surprised sometimes, even with his uncanny ability to intuit what was on her mind and what she needed or wanted. 

Or how he never assumed she would give him anything-- whether it was her hand, a kiss, or her head on his shoulder. 

Earlier on the blanket was the same. He had offered to be there for her to lean on, but he hadn’t pushed. He had this ability to get close to her without invading her space. 

Or was that her? Was he simply welcome now, his touch and presence beside her something she now wanted that it was never an intrusion in the first place?  

She leaned back on her seat, extended and locked her left elbow as she held the wheel with one hand, and looked at him again. 

She was almost startled when his eyes opened and looked at her. Almost. 

Because over the last few days, she had gotten used to him meeting her gaze. And holding it. 

Of course she couldn’t lock eyes with him just now because she was driving but she felt her lips turning up in a smile. 

She glanced at him again, and when he saw her smile, he grinned that boyish grin, reached out and took her free hand in his. 

“Did you have fun today?” 

She nodded.

“And my grilling is five-star, right?”

He laughed. 

Just to mess with him even though he did grill so well, she wrinkled her nose. “You’re pushing it.” 

She was in danger of loving that silly laugh too much. 

July 12 

They’d fallen asleep on the living room couch. 

Every single one of them was a little or a lot drunk. And judging from the blanketed lumps scattered around the living area, every single one of them hadn’t made it to the bedrooms either. 

He was on his back on the long white couch, his arm around her, securing her against him as she lay half on the sofa and half on him, her head fitting perfectly against his shoulder and neck. Her arm was around his waist, her leg thrown over his thigh. 

She sang last night. And he could still hear her singing voice in his head. 

She was an angel. And he couldn’t believe his good luck in meeting her, knowing her, and now holding her like this. 

With just a small movement, his lips reached her forehead, and he kissed her there. 

He closed his eyes again. 

She felt that kiss and smiled to herself, tightening her arm around him and relishing how warm and solid he was. She could feel nothing but space behind her back and beyond his hold, but she felt safe in his arms. He wouldn’t let her fall off the couch. 

After all, he had kept her secure while they were both on a horse. He hadn’t allowed her to be forced into anything she wasn’t comfortable with, even a tiny thing like calling him “oppa” in public. He had always… always made her feel safe. He was her sunbae and now he was… 

He was an angel. He was kind and he was funny and he was a dork and he made her heart race and made her feel at peace at the same time. 

With just a small movement, her lips reached his jaw, and she kissed him there. 

She closed her eyes again. 

This was their last day here. Maybe they could prolong it by sleeping. 

July 13

She was asleep, her legs tucked under her, both feet at her hip, the shape of her toes discernible through her yellow socks.

Her cheek was slightly squished where it rested on her shrimp neck pillow.

And he catalogued these details, these mundane details, because he was driving.

But when the lights turned red, he stopped the car and looked his fill of the details that stole his breath away, no matter how many times he'd already seen them before.

Those lips, slightly open, pink, and unadorned with any artificial color.

Their script had never called for him to touch those lips, he just did. And he had clung to the thought that it was because he was dedicated to his craft, and Lee Gon couldn't possibly NOT touch those lips when he kissed her. 

But HE couldn't either.

It was-- he was fascinated that she never had any artifice, especially on those lips, which in all the time he'd known her had never uttered a single word he couldn't like or adore.

If she wasn't saying respectful, thoughtful, or generous things, she was laughing or smiling.

Laughter that always made him laugh. Smiles that stuck to the back of his eyelids so that he saw them even when he was away from her. Just the thought of it made him smile right now. 

He pursed his lips, but his grin was too persistent, unstoppable, not when she was right there.

She stirred and scratched her nose. His eyes followed her hand as it went back to join the other on her lap. 

He loved those hands, too. 

Soft, and brave, because those hands never shied away from handling anything she thought worth the effort.

Including him. Apparently, she thought he was worthy, because here she was beside him.

And nothing else mattered. 

Everything else could be finessed.

But in the meantime, she was on a furlough before the mad rush of winter.

They had months, or realistically, weeks together. 

Or practically, perhaps days and nights scattered here and there. 

They'd be busy. So busy.

But they’d just spent four blissful days together. He had seen so much of her to fill his mind on their days apart. 

And in the meantime, she was right there beside him, sleeping and slightly... 

...slightly snoring. 

He grinned. He'd tease her about that later. And she'd probably punch him.

He loved those hits and punches. 

Like the image of her smiles, those punches gave him solid ground, made him think, anchored him to wisdom. 

He wasn't going to make mistakes this time.

He took her hand and waited for the light to change.

And then they were at the park, and her car was pulling up beside his. He squeezed her hand to wake her up. 

She saw her car the same moment she opened her eyes. 

“Oh.” 

She looked at him. He didn’t know what she saw. He hoped he didn’t look pathetic and woebegone. He tried to smile, but she had already taken off her seatbelt, already crossed the console, and already gently taking his cheeks in her hands. 

And then she was kissing him, and his arms were going around her, pulling her tight against him. She melted against his embrace and he loved the way her cheeks stroked his when she hid her face against his shoulder. 

He turned his head and pressed his lips against her neck. “I’ll talk to you later?”

She nodded against him. 

She kissed his cheek. He kissed hers. And then they were smiling at each other. “I’ll talk to you later,” she repeated. 

He hugged her again and it was her turn to nod against her hair. 

--------------------------

[hesesols]

The Devil's Advocate

Day 19 and 21 of Ichiruki month 2020

Summary: Demons are a pain in the neck. Exhibit A: The pint-sized she-demon Ichigo’s stuck with until further notice.

Rating: T

FF/ao3

.

.

His mouth is bone dry.

Summer heat renders the humidity inside the tiny studio apartment stifling. Heat and sweat cling onto him like a second skin and the stupid electric fan does nothing to ease it.

It's barely three in the morning when he trudges over to his fridge and parks himself in front of the open doors. The blast of cold air hits his heated body nicely. He almost moans.

Instinctively, he grabs the bottle of orange juice from the side and takes a swig from it- only… it's empty?

He growls, "Rukia, what did we say about leaving the empty OJ in the fridge?"

The culprit spares him a lazy smirk from her end of the couch, violet cat-eyes gleaming from the faint glow of the TV. She tilts her head just so as she sticks her tongue out at him.

"Oops!"

Ichigo wearily sighs and slams the door shut, mumbling something about free-loading she-demons. His life is hardly picture perfect to begin with anyway with his job at the Metropolitan Police as a homicide detective. Work hours are long, and his mornings usually start off with unsolicited gruesome crime scene photos and a diluted concoction of coffee-water that is nowhere nearly as strong as he needs it to be.

Since Rukia moved in though, things seem to have gone from bad to worse.

His neighbours think she's his live-in girlfriend- sweet, albeit a little strange at times. Ichigo snorts. They don't know half of it.

The midget isn't even human.

Underneath a heavy layer of glamour, are two spiral-shaped horns- the colour of it blending near seamless with her nest of glossy black hair and of course, a very noticeable fork-tipped tail, flicking from side to side as she giggles at his obvious annoyance at the OJ-less situation.

Filling his cup with lukewarm tap water instead, he trudges over and nudges at her to move. Wordlessly settling next to her, he then proceeds to ignore her indignant yelp as he splays his long legs on the couch, taking up much of her space.

She huffs and glares at him, which earns her a careless roll of his eyes.

"What are you watching?"

Squinting slightly from the brightness, he scoffs as he realizes that she's watching a Spanish telenovela. Though watching may be an understatement in this case, Rukia is obsessed with them to the point where she becomes a little too invested in the torrid love affairs of the fictional characters on screen. By virtue of her otherworldly origins, she understands every language known to man and speaks in tongues; Ichigo doesn't and thinks it's a feat that he catches the names of the characters in passing.

He grabs the remote control, surprised when she viciously slaps his hand away and hisses, "Change the channel and I guarantee you won't live long enough to see the next dawn."

"I'd like to see you try."

Ichigo snorts and does it anyway. It's hard to take her seriously even with the whole glowing eyes business when she is so tiny that she barely comes to his shoulder.

As a demon, Rukia is surprisingly low maintenance- the most outrageous of her demands since she has gotten herself suspended in limbo in their plane of existence was for him to take her to a bunny café. That being said, she does however take her soaps and TV shows very seriously which explains her aggressiveness as she launches herself at him, her touch burning hot on naked skin as she grapples for the device.

"Give it back!"

Ichigo stretches, holding it in one hand just shy of her reach, taunting her.

"Why don't you make me, midget?"

Growling, she takes him up on his challenge. Violet eyes ablaze as she clambers over him on all four, chewing at her lower lip from the effort. It shouldn't even be possible Ichigo thinks, for demons to be this cute- ahem-fixated with earthly distractions but the press of her lithe body feels warm against him, deluding him into thinking for a second, that Rukia isn't some supernatural being from the nether realms powerful enough to send him flying with a snap of her fingers.

Sometimes, he feels she almost forgets about her inhuman advantages- on purpose. The puff of warm exhale from her makes his hair stand, the sight of her face so close to his jerks his thoughts away from his nonsensical musings. Her shirt hikes up and the collar that is way too loose on her easily falls off her shoulder, showing skin.

He bites the inside of his cheek. She needs to stop prancing around in his shirts.

She has her own clothes to wear. He bought her a full array of sundresses, pants, shirts and skirts. Ichigo thinks it's compulsion that makes her raid his closet and steal his clothes. It wouldn't have been quite so ridiculous if she wasn't so petite, making his worn-in T-shirts look more like dresses with the hem cut conspicuously shorter than normal on her thighs.

Ichigo looks away and takes a quick gulp of water. The heat is doing things to him.

He's not checking her out.

He swears. Honest to God.

He's not suicidal. He wouldn't put it above Rukia to claw his eyes out or alternatively damn him to the deepest pits of purgatories if she found out about him sneaking glances at her.

"Here!"

Ichigo throws the remote back at her, standing up abruptly without sparing her another glance. His skin feels warm- much warmer than it has any business of being under a demon's touch and his mouth dry. No touch of water will ever begin to quench this thirst and tame his racing heart but he is human enough to still try to run from the implications.

It's too hot to think. He grabs his keys and wallet.

"I'm heading out."

Rukia's voice rings up from the couch- cool, unaffected as always. Ichigo hates her a little for it, almost.

"This time of the day? Where are you going?"

"To get some OJ from the corner shop since someone finished it and couldn't even be bothered enough to replace it."

Her grin is impish, not a shred of remorse from her as she sighs and kicks back, reclaiming her sovereignty over the couch.

"Oh, could you grab some ice-cream while you're at it? I think we're all out too."

He grimaces, halts his process of shrugging on a shirt to yell back, "They're full of sugary crap. Too much of it and you're going to rot your teeth!"

Just before he sets foot outside though, he grumbles.

"What flavour do you want?"

The grin she flashes at him is annoying and indolent with her spread out on the couch, like a cat in the sun, pleased with her unchallenged access to her favourite soap and him running errands on her behalf.

The satisfaction practically purrs from her as she smirks and says, "Strawberries and cream."

His cheeks burn and he tells himself that he's too nice for his own good, staunchly refusing to even consider the possibility that she's got him wrapped around her pretty little fingers.

.

.

.

The streets of his neighbourhood are mostly deserted in the wee hours before dawn and the scarcity of people makes the air somewhat bearable despite the heat. He walks home in the dark, his groceries in a plastic bag hanging limply by his side.

Ichigo sighs. It's a horrible thing to be distracted by thoughts and downright disgraceful that it has taken him this long to realize that he's being followed.

He turns the next corner sharply and as expected, the heavy footsteps, the crunch against the gravel of the pavement follows. He hides behind the decrepit wall, bidding his time until the sound creeps close enough for him to make out the shadow of a hunkering man.

Now!

He leaps out from the shadow, swinging the heavily-laden bag like a weapon at his attacker.

The stranger decked from head to toe in black falters from the surprise attack. He is forced to take another step back as the weight hits him dead centre- quickly followed by a punch from Ichigo, letting out a pained groan as his world spins.

"Who sent y- the fuck!—"

The hood of his attacker slips off and Ichigo is more than a little shocked by the ghastly appearance of the creature underneath it. Whatever this thing is- it's not human. Yellow teeth- drool dripping from the corners of the gaping mouth and sunken cheeks make up the most sinister-looking skull-face he has ever seen. The thing's unfocused milky white eyes sharpened at him.

The creature throws itself at him, snarling with claws drawn out and aimed at his jugular.

Forced on the defensive, Ichigo doesn't hesitate. Instincts and years of experience have him throwing the bag of grocery at the ghoul as a distraction to buy him time. He takes off down the street in the opposite direction without looking back.

The bag rips, predictably; the contents of it spilling into the empty streets but it barely slows the creature down.

Outrunning him by a good minute, the creature lunges at him from his blind spot which he clumsily dodges. His back meets the wall of the alleyway, chipping off old paint and the uneven edges bite into his skin through his flimsy cotton shirt, drawing blood. He hisses in pain but there's barely even time to register it as the ghoul lunges again.

The strong jaw of the creature crushes the pieces of garbage Ichigo throws at it, rendering them into splinters. Its movements and attacks unrelenting and aimed to kill.

Weaponless as opposed to the creature's deadly bite and claws, Ichigo has neither the speed nor the agility to fully dodge the frenzied attacks. The odds are stacked against him and with every swipe and snarl; Ichigo feels his chances of survival dwindling.

He is crawling backwards on all four, back against the wall when his hand closes on a steel bar. He thanks the stars and whatever higher power there may be but knows that he is not out of the woods yet.

Grim determination sets in as his eyes harden.

He only gets one chance- one chance to get this right or he's dead and done for.

.

The ghoul rears up for its attack and Ichigo readies himself.

Mid-launch, the steel bar spears through the creature's twisted body. It gives a strangled cry, black blood oozing and dripping onto the pavement, over Ichigo's battered and bruised body. But Ichigo refuses to let go. He pushes it in deeper until he can hear the snap of muscles and soft tissues, and sees the metal protruding from the other side of the dead monster.

The ghoul flops over dead. Its weight settles on top of Ichigo and he eagerly hoists it off, eager to put some distance between them. The damn thing smells worse than the open sewage and rotten corpses.

Above him, there is an ominous roll of thunder and flashes of lightning that streak through the dark skies. Ichigo picks himself up wearily. He has no intention of being caught in the downpour.

Sharp pain shoots from his side as he hobbles. His hand comes up red and in disbelief, his eyes flit to the wound on his side, cut deep and the shred of cotton or what remains of his tattered shirt is soaked in the bloom of scarlet. The drip—drop of blood follows the pull of gravity, pattering onto the hot pavement.

He's been stabbed, he realizes belatedly and curses, that was his favourite shirt too.

.

Adrenaline fades and his legs give way from the blood loss.

A drop of something cool slides down his cheek before the torrent of rain follows, drenching him as he lays helpless on the deserted street, too weak to even yell for help.

He heaves a shaky breath, trying to make himself comfortable. The ache of the pain somehow dulling as the rain blurs his vision.

Cliché but he swears he sees his life flashing before him. And at the forefront of his strange musings and equally bizarre life cut short before his time, he remembers his first meeting with Rukia.

.

.

There's nothing quite like satanic cults and human sacrifices to brighten up the prospects of the day.

Ichigo grimaced, looking at the crime scene photos with a deep frown as he sipped at his coffee. He should have never taken up Ishida on his offer.

This case had all the makings of a ritual killing. Missing child, dead parent cut open with palms splayed, gruesome markings etched- he scowled; it reminded him too much of his own loss.

A tip-off from Anonymous led him to an abandoned warehouse not too far away from the Docks, the scene of the first murder.

"Don't do anything stupid," Ishida had cautioned him against it, "It's just another prank call. I sent a team out to canvas that area hours ago. There's nothing in that warehouse."

But Ichigo wasn't convinced. Gut instincts screamed at him to take a closer look at it but he also wasn't about to pick a fight when they should be focusing the bulk of their resources and time into finding the missing girl. The first 48 hours are crucial.

He's tough and packing. That made the second part of his decision a no-brainer as he slinked in past the locked gates and rusted metal fences— alone.

What he found inside the warehouse though was enough to make him balk.

"Nothing to report, my ass," he mumbled, carefully avoiding the pile of animal bones strewn along the doorway. He thought he heard the scurrying of rats and other critters as he made his way in deeper, unable to shake off the feeling of being watched.

There's something else in here. He could feel it in his bones.

He drew his weapon as he wandered into a room with what seemed to be a laid altar with offerings of dead flowers and questionable animal remains.

Heavy clouds of sulphur and incense filled the air, making his eyes water. In the centre of the room, was a circle, curious glyphs and runes drawn in red that he strongly suspected to be blood, candles with half-burnt ends flickering.

There's a pull at him towards the circle. He didn't resist it. The minute he crossed the threshold though, the candles were snuffed out and a blinding white light enveloped him. A strange ringing echoed through the room.

When his vision cleared, there was a girl with two horns and a tail standing in front of him, violet eyes searing into his as she bowed somewhat mockingly.

"Took you long enough. I was beginning to think that I'll waste away here for another week before someone shows up."

He stared, slack-jawed at her nudity or rather her lack of shame at her own state of undress.

She was unimpressed. Tapping her foot impatiently, she looked at him and said, "Well don't just stand there and gape. State the terms of your contract and we'll see if something can be arranged."

.

.

"Ichigo!"

The memory fades. The same pair of violet eyes are now boring deep into his.

"Rukia," he breathes. Talking is hard but he tries anyway. If it's to be his dying words, let them at least have meaning. Rukia- her existence and the events leading to her presence in his life are the only things that have ever made sense in a world said to have been created by an all-loving God and yet so full of injustice and hate.

"Stop talking! Damn it!"

He thinks she's smarter than that. He's lost too much blood now to ever come back whole. He is beyond saving at this point.

There's a light somewhere guiding him on. Maybe he'll see his mom after this; will she be proud of him- of what he's done with his life?

"I won't let you die."

There's a strange shimmering in the air. The shaft of light shining down on him is suddenly blotted out and he is falling-

Falling-

Falling-

.

He slams back into his body and chokes.

The pain is a hundred times sharper and a million times more jarring than he remembers. Brown eyes snap open just in time to see Rukia's kneeling body enshrouded in a silver ashy glow of light; her hand plunged deep into his chest.

The rain plasters her hair to her face; her eyes an unholy combination of black sclera and violet irises. She growls from the effort as her fingers tirelessly trace rune after rune across his broken body. The burnished ring of gold on his chest glows and hums with each and every character added.

Ichigo can only watch on in stunned silence as a cascade of something iridescent is siphoned from her and pulled into him. He thinks he hears singing, sweeter than the song of a nightingale and so beautiful that he thinks he just might cry from it.

She grits her teeth.

"Do you trust me?"

He nods.

She presses her lips to his. He surges forward to meet her and tastes the saltiness of her tears, mingled with that of the rain. There's a cut on her lip from where she had been biting too hard and the taste of it- like honey, decadent and syrupy, lingers on his palate.

The pain- or rather the absence of it grows and he feels something being anchored into place.

His heart.

Her heart.

There's something between them that is beyond words and whatever she's done, Ichigo knows it's life-changing for the both of them. He knows somehow, staring at the identical marks of a glowing glyph on the back of their palm.

They're bonded.

But even the very word seems inadequate to express this shimmer between them. There's a sliver of her- something inhuman— nay, a dark voice whispers, better than human— within him and it makes the world incomprehensibly sharper in his eyes, the taste of the summer air sweet on his tongue and the warmth of her skin so achingly perfect against his own as he holds her.

Pink flesh peeks through his tattered shirt. He is once again healed, whole, rendered into something new in her presence.

"So," he licks his dry lips, "did Hector ever managed to tell Maria that he loves her?"

"You idiot!"

She is shaking her head, calling him names for his recklessness. At length, she stops, and heaving a sigh of deep relief, grins at him, canines showing.

"Welcome back to the world of living, Master."

.

.

.

FF/ao3

The 'I-accidentally-summoned-a-cute-demon-and-now-I-think-I'm-in-too-deep-to-let-her-go' AU

Also detective! Ichigo who solves crime with some help from the occult world- courtesy of his soulmate/familiar/contract partner demon! Rukia.

As always, review, like, reblog, comment or send me an ask to share random thoughts.

[d-criss-news]

What would have happened if diversity was introduced in the Golden Age of Hollywood? While we will never actually know, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan attempt to answer the question in their Netflix limited series, Hollywood, which is like a What If…? comic book about Hollywood in the 1940s. The series takes real people like Rock Hudson, Anna May Wong, and Vivian Leigh and combines them with fictionalized aspiring actors and filmmakers who are willing to do whatever it takes to make Hollywood look at every person as equal, no matter their race or sexual orientation. Also, unlike some of Murphy’s previous projects like American Horror Storyor American Crime Story, Hollywood has an upbeat and optimistic tone which works really well with the time period and material.

With the series arriving next week, I recently landed an extended interview with Murphy and he revealed why he wanted to tell this version of the Golden Age of Hollywood. He explained:

“I was not interested in making a biopic. I was not interested in doing a Wikipedia of Rock Hudson about, who did he know? How did he know them? Did he know Vivian Leigh? Was he aware of who Vivian Leigh was? Did he know who Tallulah Bankhead was? What I wanted to do is sort of an alternative universe look at it. In my universe, looking at these people, some things are the same and some things are very different. I want to make it clear to people that it is not a biopic approach to people’s lives. There are some things we kept very true, obviously, and there are some things that we changed.”

When I asked about where the idea came from, he revealed:

“It’s just something I’ve been working on for years, but it started because I was sort of raised by my grandmother and she was very much an old movie buff. The Golden Era Age was her obsession because she was born in 1913. And so I grew up with her and she would expose me to a lot of movies, but more so she would expose me to a lot of books about movies.

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with three people and they were Rock Hudson and Anna May Wong and Hattie McDaniel. And I never really understood why I think until I was older. I think I just saw a lot of sadness in them. They weren’t able to be who they wanted to be and express who they wanted to express. And they were really a sad part of Hollywood history and a cautionary tale.

I was always kind of thinking, even after Feud, ‘Well, what can I do with these three people?’ And I didn’t really have the right… I didn’t know. After Versace, I had a dinner with Darren Criss and we were talking about that Hollywood gas station and how interesting it was. And I was never interested in the sexuality of it really, or the sordidness of it. What I was interested in was the rather sad, upsetting idea that people had to go there to be who they were and to be able to express who they were.

Suddenly, I was like, ‘Oh, this makes sense. I can put all of these interests, this buried history idea into one thing.’ But as I told Darren… Darren and I had just finished doing Versace and I had pretty much finished the writing, I think, of Ratched, so I was interested in doing something upbeat and optimistic that sort of had a happy ending quality to it, which I’ve done not very often in my career.

Then everything just took off. Once I sort of figured out, okay, how do I put all of these things that I’ve been interested in in a while? But that’s common for me. I was doing American Horror Story. It took me five years to figure out that first season, and I like it when things come to you slowly.”

While the entertainment business is attempting to do better about representation and diversity, everyone in town could learn from Ryan Murphy. If you’re not aware, Murphy created the Half Foundation, which works very hard to create equal opportunities for women and minorities behind the camera. In addition, Murphy created the Half Director Mentorship Program which pairs directors on every Murphy television production with “emerging women and minority directors through pre-production and post-production.”

This is an incredible achievement and one of the reasons I’m such a fan of Murphy’s work.

When I spoke to him about what he’s done to champion minority voices and diversity, I was pretty effusive with my praise and asked him to talk about how it happened. He went on to say:

“Well, thank you for saying that. I mean, it’s just from… what happened to me was everything in my life collided, literally, and that I had had enough success and enough really big hits. By the way, all of them, I was told, every single time I had a hit, I was told it would not be a hit. For example, nobody thought Glee would work except for a few of us. Nobody thought American Horror Story would work. Nobody thought The Normal Heart would work. Nobody thought OJ would work. I was used to, ‘No, I believe in this.’ And I had a lot of lovely people who controlled the purse strings in my life who said, ‘Okay, well you’ve had enough successful, we’ll bet on you.’

With that came, green light power and final edit power, but I realized that I had failed miserably. I remember, around this time of 2015, when I started directing, I remember that feeling of I was the only gay person in a set of 400 people, and it was my television show. Everybody was white, male and in their 50s. I just sort of decided, you know what, I’m going to change my own company and I’m just going to have very strict hiring rules.

I created something called the Half Foundation, where I demand that 50% of all of our shows are directed by women. I love championing people like Janet Mock, and helping her move through the system and helping her make her dreams come true. And asking her, she worked on Hollywood, ‘What do you think?’ And she had a lot to say, and she had a lot to say about how the writing should be changed, that we should do this with the Camille character, and think about this.

Once I got to a place where I was empowered, I’ve tried to empower other people. I think that more than even the things that I’m making is the legacy that I’m the most proud of. And I’m very, very aware of it because I look around town and I’m like, ‘Where are the projects that are… ‘ We still don’t have enough of them. We still don’t have enough. We don’t have enough Ava Duvernays and we don’t have enough Steven Canals. We need to have more people like that, who are pushing their stories through the system. More Janet Mocks. Whenever I can step in and help, that’s what I’m the most excited about now.”

Again, everyone in Hollywood should be looking at what Ryan Murphy has done and asking themselves how they can contribute.

Hollywood debuts on May 1st on Netflix and stars David Corenswet as Jack, Darren Crissas Raymond, Jeremy Pope as Archie, Laura Harrier as Camille, Samara Weaving as Claire, Dylan McDermott as Ernie, Holland Taylor as Ellen Kincaid, Patti LuPone as Avis, Jim Parsons as Henry Willson, Jake Picking as Rock Hudson, Joe Mantello as Dick, and Maude Apatow as Henrietta.

[mysteryshelf]

BLOG TOUR - Death on West End Road

Welcome to

THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF!

DISCLAIMER: This content has been provided to THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF by Great Escapes Book Tours. No compensation was received. This information required by the Federal Trade Commission.

Death on West End Road by Carrie Doyle

Death on West End Road (Hamptons Murder Mysteries) Cozy Mystery 3rd in Series Dunemere Books (June 20, 2017) Paperback 268 Pages ISBN-13: 978-0997270181 E-Book ASIN: B06XKLVMZC

Like a basket of warm cinnamon buns, an unsolved crime is something that Hamptons innkeeper and sleuth Antonia Bingham just can’t resist. Despite a busy high-season schedule and an inn booked to capacity, Antonia has agreed to investigate a cold case in her beloved adopted hometown, East Hampton, NY: the killing of Susie Whitaker, whose brutal 1990 slaying on a tennis court in the poshest part of town was never solved. And the person who has hired Antonia? Prime suspect Pauline Framingham, a manipulative pharmaceutical heiress from a powerful family. The crime scene is compromised, the circumstances are complicated, and former witnesses are cagey, haunted and very reluctant to revisit what happened on that sun-splashed afternoon decades earlier. As Antonia attempts to unravel the mysteries of the past she unearths even darker secrets and ultimately wonders if it would have been best to let sleeping dogs lie. To make matters worse, past acquaintances and love interests reappear in the Hamptons, disrupting Antonia’s world and causing her to scurry to the fridge for comfort.

Death on West End Road is the third book in the Hamptons Murder Mystery Series. Along with a colorful cast of supporting characters, the beating heart of the book is Antonia Bingham, restaurateur, gourmand, and nosy carb-lover.

  Interview with the Author

What initially got you interested in writing?

I’ve always been writing but what really made me decide to become a full time writer was perhaps professional jealousy. I was an Editor-in-Chief of the Russian edition of Marie Claire Magazine and we kept featuring all these articles on people doing cool things. I thought, I want to do cool things, I don’t just want to feature other people doing cool things. So I quit that job and joined forces with my friend Jill Kargman to write a movie, Intern that went on to premiere at Sundance Film Festival. After that, other scripts followed and then books.

  What genres do you write in?

My first six books were what The New York Times called ‘gossip lit.’ Very soap-opera, dishy and yes, gossipy books about the fancy uber rich people in New York City and other jet-setty locales. Now I mostly write mysteries that take place in East Hampton and I also write articles for Hamptons Magazine.

  What drew you to writing these specific genres?

I grew up splitting my time in both New York City and East Hampton, New York so I knew both of those worlds. My former writing partner Jill Kargman and I liked to write about the absurd things that the rich do in New York, it was almost farcical. (Jill now has a TV show Odd Mom Out, which takes place in that world.) It was fun writing about the city and the rich, but I was not actually living in NYC when I was writing those books (I was in London and LA) so when I moved back it was a little too close to home. I didn’t want people to think I was taking notes then writing about them.

I have always been a huge fan of murder mysteries, true life crime and any major court case so I decided in would be a safer and equally as enjoyable route for me to opt for writing about murder in the Hamptons. I knew the landscape so well and the fact that there is a mix of locals and summer people and rich and famous and less fortunate would make an excellent backdrop for crime.

  How did you break into the field?

I was writing and selling screenplays that were not getting sold. Someone suggested that my then writing partner Jill Kargman and I flip them into books and then try and sell them as screenplays, which is exactly what we did.

  What do you want readers to take away from reading your works?

I want them to be happy and entertained, although that does sound a little grim because I am writing murder mysteries. I would love it if someone read my book and then said, “I can’t wait to read the next one!”

  What do you find most rewarding about writing?

I think of it as endorphins for the soul. Having a good writing session for me is the equivalent of having a good work out. I am happier and a better person. I really like exercising my creative juices.

  What do you find most challenging about writing?

I don’t like starting books. I find the set up and the beginning very difficult to launch. I much prefer being in the middle of the book.

  What advice would you give to people wanting to enter the field?

Write as much as possible. All the time. Don’t think of it as something ‘precious’ that you can only do under the best circumstances when the timing is right and you have your cup of tea and the kids are asleep. No, you just have to do it. Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote some of the greatest (and longest) books ever very quickly because he had a strict deadline to pay off his gambling debts. (And this was before computers.) So there are really no excuses!

  What type of books do you enjoy reading?

I love mysteries, crime. I have read every Michael Connelly book and I love Sue Grafton as well as Agatha Christie. But I also like women’s fiction like Liane Moriarity, Emily Giffin and Curtis Sittenfeld.

  Is there anything else besides writing you think people would find interesting about you?

Hmmm….I speak fluent Russian and lived in Russia for years. My husband is from the Crimea. I like to cook a lot and worked for Ina Garten at The Barefoot Contessa store in East Hampton when I was in college.

One of the reasons I think I am so attracted to crime stories is I found myself surrounded by murderers when I was growing up in New York. Robert Chambers, “The Preppy Murderer”, lived a few blocks from me and used to be an altar boy at my church. We always used to see him around the neighborhood and couldn’t believe what happened. Additionally my upstairs neighbor used to go jogging with O.J. Simpson and in Nicole Simpson’s diary she wrote that the first time OJ hit her was outside my building. Later on my doorman of my building killed his wife. So it is all these strange little stories that made me think about how you can live a seemingly normal life but be surrounded by murder.

  What are the best ways to connect with you, or find out more about your work?

Email me! doylecarrie@aol.com

Or my website carriedoylekarasyov.com

    About Carrie Doyle 

Carrie Doyle was the founding Editor-in- Chief of the Russian edition of Marie Claire Magazine. She is currently a Contributing Editor of Hamptons Magazine and has written extensively for Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country and has also written for Women’s Health and Avenue on the Beach. With Jill Kargman, Carrie co-wrote the film Intern (which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1999), as well as several screenplays sold to Showtime, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Films and the Oxygen Network. Carrie and Jill co-wrote five books together, including three teen books for HarperCollins and two bestselling women’s fiction books, The Right Address and Wolves in Chic Clothing (Broadway Books). Carrie also penned the popular novel The Infidelity Pact (Broadway Books). Carrie lives in New York City with her husband and two children and is currently at work on an animated series for broadcast as well as her new series, the Hamptons Murder Mysteries.

  Social Media Links:

Webpage – https://carriekarasyov.com

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/51439.Carrie_Karasyov_Carrie_Doyle

Amazon- amazon.com/author/carriedoyle

Publisher Page – http://dunemerebooks.com/book-author/carrie-doyle/

  Purchase Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Death-West-Hamptons-Murder-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B06XKLVMZC

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/death-on-west-end-road-carrie-doyle/1125956843?ean=9780997270181

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/death-on-west-end-road

IndieBound: http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780997270181

a Rafflecopter giveaway

TOUR PARTICIPANTS

June 19 – My Journey Back – REVIEW, INTERVIEW

June 19 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

June 20 – deal sharing aunt – REVIEW, INTERVIEW

June 20 – Dee-Scoveries – SPOTLIGHT

June 21 – Community Bookstop – REVIEW  

June 21 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – GUEST POST

June 22 – Books Direct – GUEST POST

June 22 – Books,Dreams,Life – SPOTLIGHT

June 23 – Brooke Blogs – GUEST POST

June 24 – Valerie’s Musings – INTERVIEW

June 24 – Island Confidential – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

June 25 – A Holland Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST

June 26 – I Read What You Write – REVIEW

June 26 – StoreyBook Reviews – CHARACTER GUEST POST

June 27 – Queen of All She Reads – REVIEW, SPOTLIGHT

June 28 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW

June 28 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – INTERVIEW

June 29 – Socrates’ Book Reviews – REVIEW

June 29 – The Self-Rescue Princess – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

June 30 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW, CHARACTER GUEST POST

Have you signed up to be a Tour Host?

Click Here Find Details and Sign Up Today!

Additional Banners

BLOG TOUR – Death on West End Road was originally published on the Wordpress version of The Pulp and Mystery Shelf

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[forensiceyes]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2q9Scx5

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp

[centuryassociates]

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive

It’s an old story: the company has associated itself with a particular celebrity in advertisements and other promotions, and now things have gone off the rails for that celebrity. Suddenly, Hertz’s long use of OJ Simpson to endorse the company just isn’t working anymore. Subway went through the same thing with Jared Fogle, who made a good living for years as the face of the fast-food chain, but then pleaded guilty to some pretty disturbing crimes that got him a 15-year jail term.

These situations are bad. The company has to determine how to handle the situation, whether to immediately sever ties with the spokesperson or to wait and see what happens, and how to move on after the relationship is terminated while minimizing the damage to the brand. The existing brand strategy may have to be scrapped immediately.

Normally you’re pretty safe when instead of a human, you use a fictional character as the face of the organization. Mr. Clean for example, even though he seems a little provocative in his latest incarnation, can probably be trusted to keep his activities within the bounds of acceptability. Even Bugs Bunny, who has done some ad work at various times in his career, keeps his transgressive personality within societal norms applicable to wisecracking rodents.

Which brings us to costumed characters, and specifically Mr. Met. Mr. Met is the costumed mascot who presides at Citi Field, the home of the New York Mets baseball team. According to Wikipedia, he began as a drawing when the Mets played in the Polo Grounds, then emerged as a costumed mascot – possibly the first for any Major League team – when the Mets began playing in Shea Stadium in 1964. Forbes Magazine named him the number 1 mascot in all sports – and nobody knows sports mascot popularity like Forbes Magazine.

Here we see Mr. Met, out with his wife in happier times and making appropriate use of his digits. By slgckgc on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

But like many longtime New Yorkers, Mr. Met can be irascible, and that has led to the latest incident. The Mets have had a challenging couple of months to begin the season, and while the team was busy losing 7-1 to the Brewers, on May 31, Mr. Met was caught on camera flipping off a fan. (There is controversy about whether he gave the fan the middle finger, since he has an even number of digits, but three fingers. But the import of the gesture is indisputable.)

The Mets immediately issued an apology on Twitter.

Although this could be a disaster if it tarnished the brand, the damage is mitigated by a few things. One is that it turns out that there is a regular person inside that costume, and while it would be hard to fire your beloved 53-year-old mascot, it’s easy to fire the guy inside and say you’ve dealt with the problem. Whether the Mets will do that or just give all those who don the costume a stern talking-to about propriety remains to be seen.

Another mitigating factor is that Mr. Met seems to have been expressing the same frustration that a lot of Met fans are feeling – a lot of Twitter commenters seem to think it’s good that he’s showing some passion. For a substantial group of fans, Mr. Met was engaged in what they would consider a “frank exchange of viewpoints,” which might make him even more beloved.

A third is that, while the video doesn’t tell us what prompted the gesture, we can all surmise that Mr. Met was getting heckled, and the gesture seems to have been directed at a particular fan rather than the fans at large. This was not like the classic 1983 explosion by Chicago Cubs manager Lee Elia in which he dropped innumerable f-bombs about fans who, he said, came to Wrigley Field because they didn’t have jobs (back in the day when all Cubs home games were played in daylight).

So Mr. Met will probably get through this intact, even though the offending image will not be going away anytime soon. This may be the video that launched a thousand Facebook profile pictures, and the Mets will likely see it in rival ballparks. Not what the Mets would have wanted for their brand, but definitely not up there with OJ or Jared. Or maybe this is an example of the principle that it doesn’t matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right – and it’s easy to spell “Mr. Met.”

But like all brand owners, the team should be careful about who they entrust their image to. The team might have known this was coming; Mr. Met has shown this part of his personality before. A SportsCenter commercial he did several years ago offered a glimpse of his short temper.

Mr. Met Regrets His Error, But Will Survive posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnEzMp