Viktor, the Viking from KC
When the Minnesota Vikings come to town this weekend, the team will be bringing more baggage than a Norse boarding party. There’s the four lost Super Bowls, the Whizzinator, the ticket scalping by a former head coach and, of course, the now-infamous pillaging and plundering of their own in October of 2005 aboard a cruise ship on Lake Winnetonka, in what’s now known as the Love Boat Scandal.
It’s no surprise the Vikings have been on a quest to remake the team’s image. So after the 2005 season, the Vikings decided to ditch its mascot, Joseph Juranitch, a dude who ran around in pelts and a horned helmet and called himself Rangar. Juranitch was the league’s only human mascot, and the Vikings technically didn’t own the rights to him.
Looking for new mascot ideas, the Vikings called up Bob Cutler, CEO of Overland Park marketing agency Creative Consumer Concepts. The agency’s famous for designing Sonic’s version of a Happy Meal, the Wacky Pack. His idea — Viktor the Viking — became a sideline reality this year. Viktor looks like the blond-haired, handlebar-mustached love child of Hulk Hogan and Dame Edna.
