Mr. Six
Encyclopedia
Mr. Six is an advertising character, first featured in a 2004–05 advertising campaign
by the theme park chain Six Flags
. Appearing as a bald, decrepit, wrinkled old man wearing a tuxedo and thick-framed glasses
, he invites stressed and over-worked people to Six Flags by performing a frenetic dance to the Vengaboys
song "We Like to Party
".
, 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 t-shirts based on the Mr. Six advertisement. Mr. Six also appeared on the nationally broadcast morning show Good Morning America
.
The first airing introduced Mr. Six as an apparently elderly, slow-moving man dressed in his trademark tuxedo and large glasses, pulling up in front of a house in a retro
-style bus; the occupants of the house are sitting around the front yard apparently very bored. Mr. Six slowly shuffles off the bus, then suddenly comes to life and performs a high-energy dance routine as "We Like to Party" begins playing, and invites the bored family to Six Flags. Subsequent ads showed different variations of Mr. Six dancing and inviting people to Six Flags. The role was, initially, non-speaking.
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 cancelled the ad campaign.
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, "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!"
, 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 would be dropped and Six Flags' next ad campaign would be called "Friendly, Clean, Fast, Safe, Service." (Despite this, he was still prominently featured at Six Flags theme parks on merchandise until his revival in 2009.) The Mr. Six campaign was replaced by the "More Flags, More Fun" campaign, which introduced an unnamed Asian character shouting the tagline at viewers.
On February 2, 2009, Mr. Six began appearing in place of the 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 2009 season opening in numerous press releases. Mr. Six also resumed appearances in a number of new television commercials where he dances and says the "More Flags, More Fun" tagline, alongside his sidekick Little Six, a much younger version of himself.
The character was described as "creepy" and his reintroduction criticized in a Time Magazine opinion piece.
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
by the theme park chain Six Flags
Six Flags
Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is the world's largest amusement park corporation based on quantity of properties and the fifth most popular in terms of attendance. The company maintains 14 properties located throughout North America, including theme parks, thrill parks, water parks and family...
. Appearing as a bald, decrepit, wrinkled old man wearing a tuxedo and thick-framed glasses
Glasses
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses , spectacles or simply specs , are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes. They are normally used for vision correction or eye protection. Safety glasses are a kind of eye protection against flying debris or against visible and near visible light or...
, he invites stressed and over-worked people to Six Flags by performing a frenetic dance to the Vengaboys
Vengaboys
Vengaboys are a Eurodance pop group based in Amsterdam. The brainchild of two Dutch producers Wessel van Diepen and Dennis van den Driesschen , they enjoyed commercial success in the late 1990s. They are best known for their two UK number one singles, "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!" and "We're Going...
song "We Like to Party
We Like to Party
"We Like to Party" is a popular 1998 electronica dance song by Dutch music group Vengaboys. It is played in A-flat major. The song became their biggest hit in the United States, peaking at #26 in the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100 and selling 405,000 copies....
".
Origin
According to USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, Mr. Six is the creation of Doner Advertising of Southfield, Michigan
Southfield, Michigan
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which 0.04% is water. The main branch of the River Rouge runs through Southfield. The city is bounded to the south by Eight Mile Road, its western border is Inkster Road, and to the east it is bounded by Greenfield Road...
. 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 t-shirts based on the Mr. Six advertisement. Mr. Six also appeared on the nationally broadcast morning show Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
.
The first airing introduced Mr. Six as an apparently elderly, slow-moving man dressed in his trademark tuxedo and large glasses, pulling up in front of a house in a retro
Retro
Retro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc...
-style bus; the occupants of the house are sitting around the front yard apparently very bored. Mr. Six slowly shuffles off the bus, then suddenly comes to life and performs a high-energy dance routine as "We Like to Party" begins playing, and invites the bored family to Six Flags. Subsequent ads showed different variations of Mr. Six dancing and inviting people to Six Flags. The role was, initially, non-speaking.
Meme and cancellation
Soon after the character's introduction in television commercials, Mr. Six became an established pop-culturePopular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
meme
Meme
A meme is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture."A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena...
. 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 cancelled the ad campaign.
Mr. Six impersonators
On July 9, 2004, Six Flags Great AmericaSix Flags Great America
Six Flags Great America is a Six Flags theme park in the Chicago metropolitan area, located in Gurnee, Illinois. It first opened in 1976 as Marriott's Great America. Six Flags purchased the park from the Marriott Corporation in 1984, making it the seventh park in the chain...
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
Six Flags Great America
Six Flags Great America is a Six Flags theme park in the Chicago metropolitan area, located in Gurnee, Illinois. It first opened in 1976 as Marriott's Great America. Six Flags purchased the park from the Marriott Corporation in 1984, making it the seventh park in the chain...
marketing director, said, "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!"
Retirement and revival
On November 29, 2005, Daniel SnyderDaniel Snyder
Daniel M. Snyder is the current owner of the Washington Redskins American football team, owner of the Dick Clark Productions television production company, and primary investor in Red Zebra Broadcasting, which is home to the Redskins Radio Network. Snyder has a net worth of $1.05 billion...
, 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 would be dropped and Six Flags' next ad campaign would be called "Friendly, Clean, Fast, Safe, Service." (Despite this, he was still prominently featured at Six Flags theme parks on merchandise until his revival in 2009.) The Mr. Six campaign was replaced by the "More Flags, More Fun" campaign, which introduced an unnamed Asian character shouting the tagline at viewers.
On February 2, 2009, Mr. Six began appearing in place of the unnamed Asian character in the "More Flags, More Fun" ads on the Six Flags website. In March 2009, Six Flags
Six Flags
Six Flags Entertainment Corp. is the world's largest amusement park corporation based on quantity of properties and the fifth most popular in terms of attendance. The company maintains 14 properties located throughout North America, including theme parks, thrill parks, water parks and family...
announced the return of Mr. Six to promote their 2009 season opening in numerous press releases. Mr. Six also resumed appearances in a number of new television commercials where he dances and says the "More Flags, More Fun" tagline, alongside his sidekick Little Six, a much younger version of himself.
The character was described as "creepy" and his reintroduction criticized in a Time Magazine opinion piece.
Parodies
- Mr. Six was parodied on a 2008 episode of Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
hosted by Tina FeyTina FeyElizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer, known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live , the NBC comedy series 30 Rock, and films such as Mean Girls and Baby Mama .Fey first broke into comedy as a featured player in the...
. In the sketch, NBC has over-scheduled The ApprenticeThe Apprentice (U.S. TV series)The Apprentice is an American reality television show hosted by real estate magnate, businessman and television personality Donald Trump, created by Mark Burnett and broadcast on NBC...
and dozens of spinoffs have been created, including one in which the contestants are TV commercial characters. Donald TrumpDonald TrumpDonald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
(played by Darrell HammondDarrell HammondDarrell Hammond is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. He was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1995 until 2009, the longest tenure of any cast member. Upon his departure, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history...
) asks Mrs. Six (played by Amy PoehlerAmy PoehlerAmy Meredith Poehler is an American comedian, actress and voice actress. She was a cast member on the NBC television entertainment show Saturday Night Live from 2001 to 2008. In 2004, she starred in the film Mean Girls with Tina Fey, with whom she worked again in Baby Mama in 2008. She is...
) if she would dance for him. Mrs. Six says she'd rather not, but the skit ends with Mrs. Six next to Trump dancing to "We Like to Party". - Mr. Six is also parodied in the Robot ChickenRobot ChickenRobot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
episode "Celebrity Rocket". In a sketch, Mr. Six appears at the site of car accident and whisks all involved to Six Flags (including a woman, a man, a cop, and a fatality in a body bag). At one point he dances behind the woman in a very provocative manner causing the cop to yank him away from her. At the end, Mr. Six begins driving them away from Six Flags only to cause another fatal accident. As the bus passengers look on at the horrifying results, Mr. Six begins dancing again. The cop gets annoyed and shoots him in the head.