How Grimace a McDonalds mascot became the Mets good-luck charm in their Amazin 2024 postseason run

Move over Mr.Met, there’s a new king of Queens.The Amazin’ run of success for this year’s New York Mets — in which the team went from summer cellar dwellers to a berth in next week’s NCLS — has fans of the blue and orange crediting one unlikely purple figure.Grimace.The famous McDonald’s advertising mascot has won the hearts of Mets fans since he threw out the first pitch at a June game and the team’s early season bad fortune quickly turned around.Now the streaking team is on the verge of returning to the World Series, and Grimace Mania is running wild — with the mascot’s face plastered everywhere, from subway cars to t-shirts to ballpark signs.“With every win from the team, we started to see more and more people connecting the [hot streak] to Grimace,” Trisha Donlin, one of the masterminds behind the team’s brand marketing, told The Post Friday.“This is who we are.

We are fun.We are fan-driven.”The so-called Grimace Effect started on June 12 when the mascot threw out a first pitch to celebrate his 53rd birthday as part of a marketing campaign with Mickey D’s, the Mets’ long-time sponsor.Though Grimace’s pitch itself was terrible — the subsequent Mets performance wasn’t, as they slaughtered the Florida Marlins 10-4 and began a five-game win streak.

And as the team made the playoffs, fans embraced Grimace as a good luck charm.Some edited the Happy Meal maven into videos, while others dressed up like him at games.

The notorious The 7 Line Army started serving a purple vodka elixir called the Grimace Punch at their watch parties.The team branding executives quickly latched onto the fun by bringing the purple monster into the fold.“From a brand standpoint, when you see people having conversations around your brand and taking the time to make their own videos and make their own content, that’s when you know that there’s something there,” Donlin saidThe Mets branding team decided to fan the fire by slowly sneaking Grimace...