A running chicken-man may become the new mascot of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang party.
It was one of ten finalists selected by a panel of two designers this week in a competition launched by KMT Youth ahead of the municipal elections in November. A winner will be selected from the ten, partially by online polls. The fowl illustration is currently in the lead by a large margin.
“Since the KMT mascot design competition stresses on freshness and energy, I picked a chicken as the design which symbolises youthful spirit,” the description for the proposed mascot said. “But I wanted to make him funnier and younger, so I decided to make it a person wearing a chicken costume, running with full spirit, to symbolise KMT leading Taiwan forward.”
The online polls will be decided by the number of comments and shares each of the proposed mascots attract on Facebook. However, the public should not count their chickens before they have hatched, since online polling will only account for 20 per cent of the final results. The rest will be determined by public opinion polls.
As of 5pm on Monday, the Facebook post featuring the chicken-man mascot ruled the roost with more than 300 comments and 700 shares. The mascot currently in the no.2 position, a Taiwan blue magpie with a KMT slogan, had around 20 comments and 160 shares. The other eight contenders had yet to reach double digits.
The chicken design attracted many apparently satirical comments.
“As a youth, it has greatly increased my recognition of KMT, I never imagined KMT could be so energetic, I want to give my votes to KMT after seeing this,” one said.
“If I can get this mascot when I join the party, I will fill in the form right away,” another claimed.
