Glory days long past for the Stanford Tree

How the mighty have fallen. Not many people will remember this, but in 1998, the Stanford University sports mascot, the Tree, was an advertising star, appearing in a bunch of ads from Citron Haligman Bedecarré for Stanford football. In one, a voiceover said the “first rule of acting is never to overact.” A lumberjack then chopped at the feet of the Tree, who went into an elaborate dying sequence. (If anyone knows if these ads are online, please tell us.) The Tree was funny, and fun to be around. No more. Nowadays, the Tree is a drunken, misbehaving pest, according to recent stories on Deadspin. In February, he was ejected from a Stanford/Cal men’s basketball game with a blood-alcohol level of 0.157. Then, this past Sunday, he was ejected from the Stanford/Florida State women’s game after refusing to clear the floor at halftime. Deadspin has even gone so far as to label the Stanford Tree “the Ron Artest of sports mascots.” It seems unlikely that the Tree will ever again be asked to act in a commercial, unless Adidas were to remake its “Long live sport” ad with the fighting mascots.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

March 21, 2006 | Permalink