Hey y’all. Wanted to give a quick update. Very excited for this season for multiple reasons. Obviously the biggest one being the debut of a fan made mascot.
I figure most of you know by now that my gofundme was successful and I was able to raise enough money to order a costume. It’s a six week production time. The vendor says the suit should be here at some point in September. I sincerely want to thank everyone who has believed in this project and contributed support in any way.
I’m just going to do a stream of consciousness to add clarity to some questions people might have:
- Who’s going to wear the suit? A student. It should always be an anonymous student. That’s how a lot of other university mascots work. I’ve already talked to students on who will wear it and where they will keep the suit. This project has always been about giving the students something to have fun with.
- Is Albineaux going to be let into the stadium? Idk. Al isn’t going to go anywhere he’s not wanted. Plus, what the character can inside the stadium is pretty limited. Right now, we have a plan to make tailgates more fun, certain fan events more memorable, and create images that scream the University of Louisiana (more on that in sec). There’s people who are paid to entertain fans at games and Albineaux shouldn’t threaten or disrupt that. Al will show up inside a stadium when enough people want it.
- How do you make people want it? Albineaux will show that he is more in tune with the culture than any previous character the university has ever had. He’s an unofficial mascot, which means he has a lot of agency to do certain things without school over site. Every image of Cayenne I’ve ever seen was him barely doing anything that screamed Louisiana. But if Al knows how to play the triangle and shows up to a tailgate with a Cajun band, you’ll get images that would feed college football fans for days. That, and then some. Everyone reading this right now can be a part of this journey. Host Al at your tailgate. Pitch your ideas for things the character to do. He is made by the fans for the fans, and will interact with fans that want to have fun with him.
- Didn’t you get a cease and desist? No. That never happened. That was just a bad headline.
- When will he make his official debut? That’s tbd right now. We’ll see how the season goes and when would be the best game to give fans something to show up for.
Closing thoughts: When the suit is here, I hope we can just let bygones be bygones. For all the vitriol and division this campaign has caused; it’s just a kid in a costume. You can like the character or hate the character; it is fine either way. Because at the end of the day it is a 18-22 year old dressed as an animal to entertain those ages or younger. The world won’t end if Al accomplishes just that.
