Hasbro, famous owners of Nerf and Death Row Records have introduced a new mascot to market their popular foam dart-maker.
Made up of many, many Nerf darts and rocking an orange basketball jersey with matching orange shoes, Murph (who uses they/them pronouns), will be the toy brand’s first-ever mascot. The marketing campaign titled ‘Unleash the play in you’ will have Murph appearing in everything from ads, stores, and across Nerf’s social media channels — so you can’t avoid Murph even if you really wanted to.
According to AdWeek, the faceless anthropomorphic character is described as “a playful spirit and gifted athlete.” In a press release from Adam Kleinman, global VP of Nerf’s parent company Hasbro, he said that Murph “represents this ageless, unbridled fun that lives in all of us and creates a physical embodiment of that feeling you get when you play with Nerf.”
Reactions to Murph have been strong, with people across the internet describing them as “nightmarish,” “terrifying,” and downright creepy. There hasn’t been a mascot that has captured the attention of Twitter so well since Gritty. If the Philadelphia Flyers mascot was able to win the hearts and minds of the internet, then so can Murph. You can read more reactions below.
