Benny the Bull, mascot of the Chicago Bulls was in a incident in the last week, putting the performer and the character in news.  The first paragraph is below or you can click here to see the full story.

“Benny the Bull” was arrested at the Taste of Chicago after taking a swing — in costume — at an off-duty police officer who was trying to get him to stop riding around on a mini-motorcyle.

There are a lot of angles to the story, but I want to focus on the topic of a mascot getting negative media.  We can leave the details of the story aside, since I don’t know enough to comment on the story….and for the purposes of this they don’t matter.

The Bulls did the right thing by offering “no comments” on the story, and by not making a statement or acknowledging it on their web site (as of this writing).  A Bulls comment would only further the story and give the media more to talk about and extend the story.  The best thing for the Bulls, the character and the performer is to let this play out.

Mascots have to walk the line of being outrageous while not infringing on the rights or enjoyment of fans.  There is nothing more boring than an overly tame mascot, but the flip side of the coin is the potential for negative media. Some times the best damage control with a media story is to just let it runs its course.

-Cudo