Long have I loved this story. It pretty much illustrates the power of advertising: create an attractive mascot designed for 18-24yo males and carpet-bomb them with its presence, and they will fetishize it exactly as you would expect them to. Cause, meet effect. I always found it admirable that unlike Disney, Nintendo will basically allow anyone to do anything they want with their licensed characters so long as it doesn't damage the brand. Want to make a t-shirt celebrating Princess Peach? Throw down, baller, you're just spreading the word. Want to make a print showing Princess Peach getting teabagged? Yeah, that's a cease and desist, pervert. esurance dropped the ball by not giving Erin a proper send-off. Would have been a legendary move. Chumps.
Forgot to mention my favorite part of this article: proof that at some point in the not-too-distant past, someone conducted a poll that required respondents to answer whether or not they found Clippy sexy. That's got to be an amazing Rule 34 search.
Thats what got me too! I was like, really, 19% found her sexy but NO other mascots are sexy (hello progressive girl?!). Then I saw who they were comparing her too. What in the fuck.