Beyond Mr. Met, there is a new king of queens.
The New York Mets' incredible success this year has taken the team from summer cellar dwellers to a berth in next week's NCLS, and fans in the blue and orange are celebrating the accomplishments of an unlikely figure in purple. is recognized.
Frown.
The famous McDonald's advertising mascot has captured the hearts of Mets fans ever since he threw out the first pitch at a game in June, and the team's early season misfortunes quickly turned around.
Now, as the powerhouse team prepares to return to the World Series, grimace fanatics are going wild, with the mascot's face plastered everywhere from subway cars to T-shirts to ballpark signs.
“Every time the team won, I started to see more people connecting with the team. [hot streak] Grimace,” Trisha Donlin, one of the team’s brand marketing masterminds, told The Post Friday.
“This is who we are. We're fun. We're fan-driven.”
The so-called grimace effect began on June 12 when the mascot threw out the first pitch in celebration of his 53rd birthday as part of a marketing campaign with Mickey D's, the Mets' longtime sponsor.
Although Grimas' pitching was terrible, the Mets' subsequent performance was not, as they defeated the Florida Marlins 10-4 and started a five-game winning streak.
And once the team made the playoffs, fans embraced Grimas as a good luck charm.
Some people edited videos of the Happy Meal Maven, while others dressed up like him in games. The infamous Seven Line Army began serving a purple vodka elixir called Grimas Punch at watch parties.
The team's branders added the purple monster to the fold and immediately got in on the fun.
“From a brand perspective, when you see people talking about your brand and taking the time to create their own videos and content, you know there's something there,” Donlin said. said.
The Mets' branding team decided to fan the flames by slowly sneaking Grimas into Instagram posts, the 2025 season calendar, and even team photos. At one point, they even teamed up with McDonald's to put his image on the No. 7 train heading to the game.
Comments on the average Mets' social media post quickly went from criticizing the Mets' lackluster performance to cheering on the team's quirky play.
Soon, even casual fans were celebrating the purple monster. Since Grimas burst onto the scene, Grimas-related social media content has collectively received 13 million impressions.
“Our fans are very passionate, and they're discovering that, so we decided to say, 'If you know, you know,'” Mets senior director of social media campaigns 's Will Caraferro told the Post on Friday.
Mets marketing executives kept a “light touch” throughout Grimath's four-month journey to keep the work brought to life by memes from becoming pure disgust.
“We don't want to be a brand that goes too deep and ruins it for everyone,” Caraferro said.
Mr. and Mrs. Mets, the team's real mascots, seemed lost in the mayhem. However, Donlin's team tried to show fans there were no hard feelings by awarding Grimas his own jersey to the couple during an on-field ceremony.
A near-constant stupidity has always been at the heart of the Mets' personality. But the Mets' post-scowl success meant they had to deal with the kind of jealous haters the hard-nosed Yankees were accustomed to.
“I feel like there's more jealousy from fans saying, 'Oh, I wish it was us,'” Caraferro said.
Fans can expect Grimas to ride out the Metsmania for the rest of the postseason, and hope it helps lead the Queen's team to the World Series.
But the finale that New Yorkers dream of, pitting the straight-laced Yankees against the fun-loving Mets, will probably be the Purple Giant's last hurray, until the next sordid story takes his place. That's going to happen.
“I think next year will be a new chapter in our story,” Donlin said.
