Opinion: Norky watch: The adventure begins

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So a few nights ago I’m walking my kids past Mel’s Drive-In at Highland and Hollywood, when we get flagged down by a strangely chimerical penguin (a penguin, I later learned, with longer, airworthy wings and the head of an eagle). He’s Norky, an all-purpose mascot whose press materials describe him as ‘the Hybrid Peneagle from the North Pole’ and also ‘’The New Original GOODWILL Character’ who appears anywhere any day of the year.’ Norky and his handler, Brady Farmer, were working bystanders for a free-food offering from a local ad hoc committee to save the Hollywood Christmas Parade. The guy in the Norky suit was pretty good: He successfully engaged my five-year-old for a couple minutes without scaring her, and when Farmer namedropped Mickey Rooney as a supporter of the save-the-parade campaign, I said ‘Hey, isn’t that Mickey in the Norky suit?’ and Norky without missing a beat squatted down until his peneagle suit was almost a perfect sphere and began waving: ‘No this is Mickey in the Norky suit,’ he said—which wasn’t the funniest gag ever but was fairly witty for an on-the-spot reaction.

Anyway, the save-the-parade meeting was sparsely attended. For a story about the campaign in late March, an aide to Councilman Eric Garcetti told the L.A. Times’ Bob Pool, ‘[O]ur office looks forward to learning more about their efforts,’ but sadly, neither Garcetti nor Councilman Tom LaBonge responded to invitations. Melrose Larry Green, on the other hand, was in attendance, and I wish the activists the best in their efforts. A recent Times Op-Ed mourned the passing of the parade, and it seems strange that the center of the global entertainment complex can’t compete in the parade market with Pasadena or Philadelphia: I’d suggest moving the resurrected parade away from the Macy’s Thanksgiving competition and into an early-December date—maybe Día de la Inmaculada Concepción (12/8 this year) or even Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (12/12), both of which would seem to fit L.A. to a tee. The Christmas-parade niche is wide open, but not if you hold it on Thanksgiving weekend.

But it’s Norky who’s really fired my imagination. Just what is the peneagle’s status in the lovable-character/mascot pecking order? The enthusiastic Farmer assured me that the character does solid business in Kentucky Derby appearances, has TV deals in 30 countries and, after five years in action, is set to expand into a range of media. Eight-year-old Christian A. Henley, for example, has authored Adventures with Norky: Teamwork. For more documentary evidence, here’s a gallery of Norky photo opps. This pic of the peneagle, Santa Claus and L. Ron Hubbard’s spirit all supporting the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights is from Norky’s site, which ominously warns that Norky ‘even shows up in your dreams.’

The one place Norky hasn’t shown up has been on my radar screen, and while I don’t like to brag, the last few years have given me more than a passing acquaintance with sub-A-list-level kid-friendly characters. If you’re talking Miffy, the strangely deathless Noddy, even Jakers! The Adventures of Piggly Winks, you’re talking my language. But Norky? Never heard of him until the other night. And not to put too fine a point on it but it’s a seller’s market these days for penguin avatars; if anything we’re rapidly approaching the saturation point. I’d suggest Norky ditch the half-eagle stuff in a hurry and just start marketing himself as a magical penguin who flies and plays Polar Ball.

Norky’s also got an uphill climb in terms of brand recognition. While he tops the Google results for a search on ‘norky,’ the first results page also turns up entries on Norky’s Peruvian restaurant in Tampa, Florida; a seemingly more swank Norky’s in Lima; and most disastrously, several mentions of a character named Norky who showed up on the Ewoks television show in the eighties, and is described by witnesses as ‘a marsupial-type creature’ and ‘an obnoxious kangaroo-like creature.’ At the very least, Norky is going to have to close out the competition in the imaginary-creature space, and also distinguish a separate brand identity from the various bulletin-board Norkys who self-identify as Opera browser users, Buddhist guitar fans, and the ‘King of Kings.’

Nevertheless, Farmer, who recently took charge of building the brand as Norky Entertainment’s director of entertainment and community affairs, says the company is doing well enough to employ 20 people, including an assistant for himself—and to my rather too blunt question, he replied that yes, they are making payroll. He also promised to send some Norky swag my way, and I will be sure to give my report when that arrives. And in fact, I intend to keep an eye out for Norky in the future. While I hope he can help lead the Hollywood Christmas Parade to a triumphant return to life, I’m mainly just fascinated by the franchising prospects. Every day people are striking it rich on brands you’ve never heard of—another fascinating region of the Long Tail era, even if penguins don’t have very long tails.