Unless you’ve been living in space or under a rock
the past few years, you’ve probably seen Minions – the those little yellow creatures from the movie Despicable
Me – on your favorite snack, your kids toys, your Facebook feed, and maybe even
your toilet paper. (Although I’m
pretty sure they have minions on space food packaging now, too, so there really is no excuse.)
The phenomenon that is Minions started out as innocent, yet
hilarious, animated characters in a film where they weren’t even the stars. But Minion mania has evolved to something much more
than that. I had no idea when I saw the first movie (which I loved) that I
would be seeing Minions on almost every ad space possible – and even
places I thought I’d never see an ad. Hell, one of our interns here brought in Tic-Tacs that she hates the flavor of, but had to buy because Minions were on them.
You can’t deny, that is successful marketing.
Despite the obvious love affair we have with these yellow guys, there is a movement of #MinionHate as well. Case in point: the newly
popular subreddit /r/minionhate is an actual place keyboard warriors go to
discuss their anti-Minion sentiment with others who feel the same way. Search
any phrase with any phrase with words “Minion” and “hate” in it on Google, and
you’re sure to turn up a list of why they’re terrible or a video of someone
burning their Amazon box (minion branded, duh) or their sibling’s stuffed toy.
The question becomes, how far is too far? To be
honest, you don’t notice until you really make yourself aware. They are
EVERYWHERE. It’s alarming. There’s brand takeover and then there’s the Minion
takeover. Don’t believe me? See what Buzzfeed has to say…
~ Sarah Yeager, Account Coordinator, The S3 Agency
