To Sell New York, the City Calls on the Ninja Turtles (Or as I call them Mutant Red-eared Sliders, or Trachemys scripta elegans pizza pizza) - via Herp Digest

By Anne Correal, 4/30/16, New York Times

If you were selecting mascots to help draw tourists to a city, the first choice might not be a group of street-fighting reptiles who live in the sewer with a rat.

That, as it happens, is just whom the officials who make such decisions in New York have chosen.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael — will be this year’s “family ambassadors,” the city’s tourism agency announced this week. And their images will be everywhere.

“You’re going to see them in the airport,” said Fred Dixon, president and chief executive of the agency, NYC & Company. “You’re going to see them in the back of the taxi. You’re going to see them in museums. They’ll literally be your tour guides.”

The turtles, for those who may not know their origin story, first appeared in a 1984 comic book by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, in which New York was a dirty, dangerous, crime-ridden city. They assumed human size after a canister fell down a storm drain, sliming them with a growth-inducing chemical. They took refuge in the sewers with the rat, Master Splinter, who had also been doused with the chemical. In the comic book, the turtles sneered behind masks and shouted expletives as they leapt between rooftops, swinging weapons like nunchucks and battling crime.

Asked if there had been any hesitation about employing weapon-wielding inhabitants of a grittier New York as poster children of today’s spiffier city, Mr. Dixon said no. “The turtles, like all of us, have evolved,” he said.

For his part, Mayor Bill de Blasio called the Ninja Turtles “an excellent choice” for a marketing campaign.

NYC & Company began the family ambassador effort in 2009 to help the city compete with family-oriented destinations like Orlando, Fla. Since then, with the help of characters like Dora the Explorer, the agency said, family tourism has risen 32.6 percent. Families will make up about a third of the 59.7 million tourists expected to visit this year, the agency said.

One of the tourism posters, which show the characters at well-known spots around New York. Each of the turtles is associated with a different type of attraction.

Credit

Viacom International Inc.

What’s in it for the Ninja Turtles? In a word, publicity. Just as Taylor Swift’s turn as a spokeswoman for the city in 2014 and 2015 dovetailed with the release of her album “1989,” the turtles’ role coincides with the release of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows,” a sequel to the characters’ 2014 film. The new movie was shot in the city and is to be released in June.

Pam Kaufman, chief marketing executive and president of consumer products at Nickelodeon, which bought the rights to the Ninja Turtles franchise and proposed the idea to the city, said having them serve as family ambassadors was “a no-brainer.”

“They are New York City natives,” Ms. Kaufman said. “They are characters that love the city and know it inside and out. People recognize them.”

As for their less-than-auspicious origins, she said, “there was zero discussion around that.”

That may be another sign of how much the city has changed, or how secure it is with its cleaned-up image — though it is true that the turtles have undergone many mutations since their earliest comic book incarnation. Over time, they have been child-friendly teens who yelled only “Cowabunga!”, action figures, and, after a dark-and-brooding movie debut in 1990, goofy pals in subsequent movie and television iterations.

As part of the tourism campaign, each character is associated with a different type of New York attraction that fits his personality. Donatello, who loves science and gadgets, promotes museums and cultural attractions. Michelangelo, an optimist obsessed with pizza, is the gourmand of the group. Raphael, the rebel without a cause, touts the city’s parks and zoos. Leonardo, the leader of the pack, is a booster for the city’s monuments and institutions, places like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building and the United Nations.

Asked if there would be costumed turtle characters in New York, Ms. Kaufman of Nickelodeon, said, “Thankfully, no.” They may, however, appear for photos at events outside the city.

Interviewed around Times Square this week, visitors from Australia, the Dominican Republic, Greece and the Netherlands all said they were familiar with the turtles. “The whole world knows them, adults and kids,” Jose Luciano, 22, of Santo Domingo, said in Spanish. “In the end it is a good image, because they’re helping to protect the city. And that’s how New York is, everyone is living on top of each other, wherever they can. Unless you’re rich.”

Not everyone approved of the choice. “It should be something not violent, for the kids. They should be making happy things like Sponge Bob,” said John Gunner, a hotel manager originally from Malaysia who was visiting from Australia. His 6-year-old daughter, Danica, said she would have preferred characters from “Frozen.”

The turtles may actually convey a quintessentially New York experience, said Richard Rosenbaum, author of “Raise Some Shell,” a cultural history of the characters. Their personalities, he said, reflect “a melting pot” of pop culture and New York references. In one of their films from the 1990s, Raphael had a New York accent, and the turtles would eat at Roy’s Pizza (a variation on Ray’s Pizza).

“They exemplify the experience of many New Yorkers,” said Mr. Rosenbaum, a fan since elementary school. “They’re being raised by an immigrant father, who came from Japan. They love their city, they defend their city, but they’re often not recognized.” He added: “They’re marginalized, but in fact, they’re heroes.”

And like the city itself, he said, “I think they’re seen as a lot less threatening than they use to be.”

Mr. Laird, one of the creators, said in an email, “In an era in which we have seen the development of all kinds of different — but totally legitimate — family structures, it seems quite appropriate to use the Turtles.”

“As for their being tough — yes, that is true,” he added. “But being ‘tough’ doesn’t have to mean being nasty or brutish and the Turtles certainly exemplify that.”

And, after all, the turtles are not the city’s first edgy icons. “We cashed in on ‘Sex and the City’ and now we’re doing it with this,” said Chris Heywood, a spokesman for the tourism agency. And just as fans of “Sex and the City” identified with Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, everyone seems to see themselves in one of the turtles. Ms. Kaufman of Nickelodeon said, “Of course, I’m Leo. Leader of the pack.”

Mr. Dixon of NYC & Company had a different choice. “Donatello, he’s the one I can relate to,” he said. “But I’m an inner Michelangelo. I have a terrible sense of humor and I like to eat.