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Sometimes, you have to kill your darlings\u2014and, apparently, your mascots.<\/p>\n
In 2020, the snack-food company Planters announced that its mascot, Mr. Peanut, was dead. The stunt, eventually revealed to be part of a Super Bowl campaign in which Baby Nut was born, quickly prompted brands like Mr. Clean and Snickers to jump in on the public mourning.<\/p>\n
Five years later, it\u2019s d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again, this time with the victims being Duolingo\u2019s mascot, Duo the Owl, and his friends Falstaff, Zari, and Lily. The language-learning app announced Duo\u2019s death on February 11 and followed it up with vague posts that encouraged mourning and speculation about what killed the mascots (a Cybertruck, in Duo\u2019s case) and what would bring them back (users completing language-learning lessons on the app). Once again, brands including Scrub Daddy, Byoma, and Tarte were quick to join in with their own posts and comments responding to the death of the owl. Even Dua Lipa sent her condolences. Two weeks later, Duolingo revived the bird with a video stating, \u201cLegends never die.\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to engagement, the stunt seems to have paid off: According to ad management platform Metricool, Duolingo\u2019s engagement across platforms increased 346% in the days after its initial post, with a 52% engagement rate on the Instagram announcement alone.<\/p>\n
But not everyone was amused, and certain aspects of the campaign have raised questions about shock value marketing and how far is too far. Given the high amount of brand participation in the campaign, experts told us they expect to see other marketers take inspiration from Duo\u2019s death, for better or worse\u2014so what should they consider before throwing their main character under the bus (or truck)?<\/p>\n
What qualifies as brand-safe marketing in 2025 seems to be up for debate as some brands crawl back to X and continue spending on Meta platforms that are dialing back content moderation. When it comes to touching on a topic as sensitive as death, experts told us it\u2019s still a tricky subject\u2014one that requires a certain brand personality and audience to pull off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a huge risk in some ways, but I think [Duolingo] clearly [knows] their audience, and their audience has jumped on board,\u201d Richard Hanna, associate professor of marketing at Babson College, told us. \u201cI don\u2019t know that another brand could simply follow and repeat this formula to the same success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alex Caceres, Metricool\u2019s head of US marketing, agreed: \u201cOther brands might struggle to make a stunt like this feel authentic,\u201d she said in an email. \u201cA poorly executed attempt could come across as try-hard or turn off audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duolingo\u2019s signature sense of humor was front-and-center throughout the campaign. In one video where the brand promoted mascot plushies with X-ed out eyes in coffin-shaped boxes for $29.95, a voiceover reads, \u201cWe\u2019re monetizing grief because we are a corporation!\u201d Another video, displaying Duo in a casket set to a sexually explicit song, garnered more than 7 million likes on TikTok.<\/p>\n
Hanna said Planters\u2019s death stunt didn\u2019t seem to land as well as Duolingo\u2019s, which he chalked up to bad timing (Mr. Peanut\u2019s demise unfortunately coincided with the death of Kobe Bryant) and also because there simply may not have been as much emotional attachment to Mr. Peanut to begin with.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis [success] doesn\u2019t happen for most mascots,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not part of a bigger conversation in pop culture the way the Duo the Owl is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, a cheeky brand like Duolingo isn\u2019t immune to backlash, as past events have shown, and some marketers have taken issue with certain aspects of the campaign. One video, where the \u201cdead\u201d mascots appear as a viral audio of a woman singing \u201cI tried not to kill myself\u201d plays, could be seen as making light of suicide, digital strategist Benton Williams argued in the internet culture newsletter, Silence, Brand.<\/p>\n
In 2007, GM changed an ad about a robot throwing itself off a bridge after a suicide-prevention group asked the brand to pull the creative. In the case of Duo, though, that doesn\u2019t seem to be the case, as Benton noted many marketing leaders opted to \u201ckeep their cards closer to their chests on this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI truly believe that people would see through this if it was another brand,\u201d Williams told us. \u201cBut because Duolingo is a leader for both community and culture at large, as well as an industry leader, there\u2019s this weird gray area of immunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the original announcement, Duolingo also encouraged people to share their credit-card numbers in mourning of Duo, which Hanna said \u201ccould easily come back to bite them\u201d if someone took it seriously. Even the video of Duo getting hit by the Tesla could be received poorly, especially among consumers unfamiliar with Duolingo\u2019s sense of humor, he said.<\/p>\n
Williams emphasized that brands exercise caution if they look to replicate or draw inspiration from the stunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo not settle for virality over meaningful engagement, know where your line is, and be able to maintain that in the face of being asked to make something go viral or increase the bottom line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
All in all, it took a couple weeks for Duolingo to bring Duo back to life, which could have been a titch too long. Hanna said keeping audiences involved in the process of reviving Duo seemed to work in Duolingo\u2019s favor because it kept them invested\u2014but dragging things out could work against a brand, since without clear direction, people can easily tire of such a stunt. Some felt that way before it became clear that completing Duolingo lessons would save Duo; Williams said he felt bored and confused by Duolingo\u2019s overall goal one week in.<\/p>\n
Caceres, who said she \u201cloved the campaign,\u201d agreed. \u201cIt did take some time for the main messaging of the campaign to get back to me past the humor and online discourse,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mascot deaths and revivals can also cause some confusion: Planters revived its mascot in 2021 after a yearlong effort to replace him with Baby Nut, who then grew up to be Peanut Jr., a transformation that might have been hard to follow for those not paying close attention.<\/p>\n
With Duo the Owl now alive and presumably well, it\u2019s unlikely that the brand will pull off a stunt like this again, Hanna said\u2014at least not with the same level of success.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can do big events on an annual basis,\u201d he said. \u201cBut you can only kill the mascot once.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n