Update: 4/2/2018 @ 8:55pm EST
Do you think we’d actually give up Pigasus for a flying squirrel? No way! If you bought the blog post below, you’ve just fallen for our first prank of the 2018 camp season. Pigasus will forever remain our mascot, no tattoos will need adjusting, and you can keep your pig-themed gear for camp this summer. Happy April Fools Day!
We at Camp Promise have always had informal ties to the ad community through Camp Director Terin Izil’s day job as a copywriter. But this spring, The Beta Agency took on Camp Promise as a pro-bono client. “We’re hoping this will be the beginning of a long partnership,” said Abby Harris-Shea, the agency’s Chief Creative Officer. “We see how much passion lives in the Camp Promise community and want to make sure it shows in their marketing efforts.”
One of their first assignments was revisiting the Camp Promise logo. “We love Pigasus, but we picked it in a hurry when we had six weeks to pull together the first camp,” explained Izil. “Now that our 10th anniversary is coming up, we thought it was time for a refresh.”
Harris-Shea and her team conducted multiple focus groups before recommending Camp Promise change their mascot from a flying pig to a flying squirrel. “The pig just didn’t test well,” explained illustrator Nicole Nalazek. “The swine flu reference went over people’s heads. Squirrels are very in right now.”
It would be lying if we said the squirrel (still yet to be named) was a hit at first. “I have invested so much in flying pig stuff I was adamantly against the switch,” commented Camp Director Libby Brockman, “but when I searched on Amazon, I saw there’s just way more squirrel stuff. It’s going to be much easier to gear up for camp in the long run.”
And as for the half-dozen or so people who have Pigasus tattooed on their bodies? According to Camp Registrar Shannon Healey, “We admire the commitment people have to the old look and want to make sure we take care of them. So we’re putting together a step-by-step guide for tattoo artists on how to convert a flying pig into a flying squirrel.”
Stay tuned for a naming contest to name the new mascot…
–Post by Terin Izil
