A&W Announces 'Polarizing' Bear Mascot Will Now Wear Pants In Hilarious Troll
A&W jokingly announced that longtime mascot Rooty would start wearing pants.
A fast food chain’s joking tweet about its mascot’s clothing choices apparently caught Fox Business with its pants down.
On Tuesday, A&W Restaurantsannounced on Twitter that Rooty the Great Root Bear would start wearing trousers.
The post appeared to be a jesting reference to a recent decision by chocolate brand M&M’s, which put its “spokescandies” on “indefinite pause” after conservative types like Fox News’ Tucker Carlson griped that the green M&M character was now wearing tennis shoes instead of go-go boots.
The A&W tweet read, in part: “America, let’s talk. Since 1963, Rooty the Great Root Bear has been our beloved spokesbear. We knew people would notice because he’s literally a 6-foot tall bear wearing an orange sweater.”
It added, “But now we get it — even a mascot’s lack of pants can be polarizing.”
A message from A&W. pic.twitter.com/WGdF12TSyg
— A&W Restaurants (@awrestaurants) January 24, 2023
Considering that many corporate characters — like Poppin’ Fresh, Chester Cheetah and the Geico Gecko — have long opted to go pantless, A&W’s social media staffers probably thought most people would recognize the tweet as a gag.
But the joke was on them, because Fox Business assumed the announcement was serious and reported on it as yet another sign of “woke police cancel culture” run amok.
Fox Business responded to this news by lamenting the "woke police cancel culture" https://t.co/qQVR7BLeiTpic.twitter.com/BlJ4ZVuJtA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 25, 2023
Eventually, A&W felt obligated to clarify that the tweet was a prank after Fox Business published a story with this sensationalized headline: “FUR COAT AND NO KNICKERS: A&W Root Beer is the latest company bowing to ‘woke.’”
Is now a good time to mention this is a joke? 😅
— A&W Restaurants (@awrestaurants) January 25, 2023
As a result, Fox Business then changed its headline to reflect the jokey nature of the soda company’s announcement.
Meanwhile, Twitter users mocked the overreaction to the pantless bear post.
LOL their lack of ability to get the joke is even funnier than the joke itself https://t.co/qTaCz1jwEL
— Patterico (@Patterico) January 25, 2023
At 10:41am EST, A&W declared their statement putting pants on a bear to be a joke, to anyone for whom that wasn’t obvious.
About an hour later, Fox posted the social media story I screenshotted, reporting it as real controversy: https://t.co/8GDRRmayIOhttps://t.co/iRkMxKkhxo— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) January 25, 2023
Unserious. People.
Also they're some of the most gullible people who don't realize these are obvious marketing stunts. I will say it's pretty genius because it's free advertising & brand awareness as places like Fox overreact to some of the smallest/stupidest things. https://t.co/wuy0t2ttZ5— Ty Jäger (@TheTyJager) January 25, 2023
Fox News and their "woke police" bit has reached such levels of ridiculousness that they can't discern obvious satire directed *at them* by a *fast food chain*. https://t.co/WHgwULCMti
— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) January 25, 2023
Brand managers who change their mascot in a tweet with the word “polarizing” can take the week off and let Fox do the rest. https://t.co/y486JeTJtL
— Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) January 25, 2023
When will POST be transparent about Captain Crunch’s stolen valour?!?! I also saw Fred Flintstone’s nut-sack when he was sliding off the brontosaurus (now called Apatosaurus. yet another scandal.) Its time for accountability…for the kids. https://t.co/rDNsrs8uQC
— Spencer Rice (@Spenny) January 25, 2023
CORRECTION: This story has been amended to note that A&W Restaurants, not A&W Root Beer, tweeted the announcement that Rooty the Great Root Bear would wear pants. It has also been updated to specify that the “woke police cancel culture” comments were made on Fox Business.