Dairy Queen Puts College Mascots to Work for Football Season

Dairy Queen is giving its football-season promotion some campus personality.

The brand is launching a limited-time $6.99 Chicken Strip Basket deal alongside its new "MVP Dip" lineup.

It's then bringing in college mascots from the University of Oregon, Illinois State University, and the University of Kansas to promote the offer across social media.

The four-piece basket includes a choice of Original or FlameThrower Chicken Strips, fries, a drink, and one of three sauces:

• The new Strip Dip
• The new Ghost Pepper Dip
• DQ's house-made Hidden Valley Ranch

For DQ, the football connection gives an ordinary value promotion a setting more familiar to its audience. 

"Football brings together passionate fans, spirited rivalries and traditions that make every game memorable,” said Becky Felling, VP of Marketing at American Dairy Queen Corporation.

"We’re excited to add to that energy with new and popular returning flavors from DQ at a great value."

Felling said the campaign is intended to give fans "more ways to enjoy the season" while using the personalities surrounding college football to create moments for teams, friends, and families.

This gives DQ a useful piece of brand identity to work with: the mascot.

College sports mascots function as recognizable representatives of their schools, with their personalities bleeding into fan-facing content.

They're symbols of the connection between teams and their supporters, generating strong engagement especially when they interact with celebrities or other mascots.

When Mascots Get Hungry

The campaign's first social videos put The Duck, Reggie Redbird, and Big Jay in the spotlight as they react to fans getting excited about the Chicken Strip Basket and MVP dips.

They each come with a faux interpreter, as if to translate whatever they're saying.

"We're just mascots, but with this deal, no one is safe," one of them says.

Oregon Sports Properties' Kelly Schukart said The Duck made the partnership a natural fit for the start of football season.

"The Duck is one of the most recognizable personalities in college sports, known for bringing infectious energy, humor and an unmistakable presence to every game day experience," he said.

The choice of three schools also gives DQ multiple entry points into college football audiences, with each mascot arriving with its own audience and established relationship with fans.

The $6.99 offer is available for a limited time at participating DQ restaurants, with customers directed to DQ.com or the DQ app to find a location.

College Football Has the Audience

The campaign arrives as college football continues to command substantial attention.

The Washington Post reported that minutes consumed for college football rose 33% from 2021 to 2025, with ESPN recording its most-watched college football season since 2011.

This approach points curious marketers to three useful moves:

• Borrow attention from existing personalities: Mascots have the popularity that gives them reason to behave the way they do on camera.
• Give promotions a social role: A discount becomes more useful creatively when the campaign gives people something to watch.
• Work with several communities: Multiple school partnerships let one seasonal message travel through distinct fan bases.

Seasonal marketing does not always need a new product idea, and the opportunity comes in finding the people, characters, or communities that already have a reason to care.

Our Take: Who Gets to Be the Star?

We tend to think of mascots as decorative assets, useful for a sideline photo or a logo lockup.

Here, they're cast members.

This creative decision makes room for the product to sit quietly in the scene and still feel relevant.

It's a little like watching a good bartender work.

The drink matters, but nobody came in just to stare at the glass.

This is the more interesting lesson for brands with access to licensed characters, community figures, or institutional personalities.

You can't just put them beside the product.

Give them something to want, argue about, or react to.

Find the teams driving growth and engagement across every platform. 

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