Mr. Six

Mr. Six is an advertising character, first featured in a 2004-2005 advertising campaign by the theme park chain Six Flags. Appearing as a bald, wrinkled old man wearing a tuxedo and thick-framed glasses, he invites stressed and over-worked people to Six Flags by pulling up in a retro-style bus and performing a frenetic dance to the Vengaboys song "We Like to Party".

Origin

According to USA Today, Mr. Six is the creation of Doner Advertising of Southfield, Michigan. The success of the ad became such that Six Flags toured the vintage bus featured in the ad to all of its 31 parks and sold over 9,000 t-shirts based on the Mr. Six advertisement. Mr. Six also appeared on the nationally broadcast morning show Good Morning America.^[1]

Meme and cancellation

Soon after the character's introduction in television commercials, Mr. Six became an established pop-culture meme. Parodies of the commercials appeared on television shows and on video sites such as YouTube, while media outlets and blogs attempted to unmask the identity of the actor. The popularity of the character continued even after Six Flags officially canceled the ad campaign.

True identity

Due to his spryness, it was speculated that he was played by a much younger actor. Blogger Paul Davidson has reported that Danny Teeson, most noted for his turn on Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, played the dancing Septuagenarian.[1] Six Flags has thus far refused to reveal the actor's identity.

Mr. Six impersonators

On July 9, 2004, Six Flags Great America held a contest to find the best person who could impersonate the new "Ambassador of Fun" Mr. Six and dance like him. The reward would be $2,500 cash and other small prizes. About 200 people dressed in tuxedos and red bow ties went out onto the stage and danced. The winner of the contest was 13-year-old Jordan Pope.

Jim Crowley, Six Flags Great America marketing director, said of Jordan:

"Jordan truly embodies the spirit of Six Flags!" "He had Mr. Six's unique dance moves down to a science, the crowd went wild when he took the stage!"^[2]

Retirement

On November 29, 2005, Daniel Snyder, owner of the NFL Washington Redskins football franchise, took over Six Flags and on the very next day announced the retirement of the ad campaign. Snyder said that Mr. Six was "pointless." Mr. Six and the "It's Playtime!" motto will be dropped and Six Flags' next ad campaign would be called "Clean, Safe, Fun." Despite this, he is still prominently featured at Six Flags theme parks on merchandise, and as of 2007, "We Like to Party" by The Vengaboys can still be heard in Six Flags radio and television commercials.

Revival

On February 2, 2009, Mr. Six began appearing in place of the previous unnamed Asian character in the "More Flags, More Fun" ads on the Six Flags website. In March 2009, Six Flags announced the return of Mr. Six to promote their parks 2009 season opening in numerous press releases.^[3] Mr. Six also began appearing in a number of new television commercials where he speaks for the first time.

Parodies

Mr. Six was parodied on a 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Tina Fey. In the sketch, NBC has over-scheduled The Apprentice and dozens of spinoffs have been created, including one in which the contestants are TV commercial characters. Donald Trump (played by Darrell Hammond) asks Mr. Six (played by Amy Poehler) if he would dance for him. Mr. Six says he'd rather not, but the skit ends with Mr. Six next to Trump dancing to "We Like to Party."

See also

• List of American advertising characters

References

News articles

• Fink, James (March 31, 2005).'Mr. 6' returns as Six Flags headliner. Business First
• Howard, Theresa (July 11, 2004).Dancing Mr. Six scores with viewers of Six Flags ads. USA TODAY

Websites

• "TV ACRES: Advertising Mascots > Mr. Six (Six Flags Theme Park)". http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_mr_six.htm. Retrieved July 10 2005. 
• "Six Flags Commercial featuring #1 Mr. Six". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU2yt6wOoK0. Retrieved June 11 2009.