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Newspaper image could be adopted by football club

A debate is under way as to whether the Evening Star’s endearing Tractor Boy mascot for Ipswich Town FC could be taken on as an official club mascot.

The club sent a survey to 50,000 fans to ask their opinion on a range of issues.

And one of them was whether to adopt the Tractor Boy – designed and created by Star brand manager Austen Dack, design editor Jon Elsey and editor Nigel Pickover – as an official image.

The Star’s own website also ran a poll, and despite a “no” vote of 56 per cent, 67 per cent of the same people said they liked the Tractor Boy image.

But they want to keep it as a fans’ image, not a club one.

Austen said: “It looks like the fans love the fun image of Tractor Boy and this has been seen by the way they have interacted with him through a range of items.

“We’ve produced car stickers, Tractor Boy beer, McDonalds meals, a CD and posters which have all sold well. There are more than 10,000 car stickers in circulation and there can be little doubt that Evening Star readers have already adopted him as their own.”

Phil Ham, editor of Ipswich Town fanzine Those Were The Days, said he thought Tractor Boy was a great bit of fun for the fans, but felt the club shouldn’t adopt it as an image.

He said: “From a fans point of view and as something which organically grew from the fans, it is a bit of fun. Some fans might think that the club adopting the image would be a case of them jumping on the supporters’ bandwagon. It may lose some kind of kudos if that happened.”

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