Toledo says its Twitter campaign to change mascot to Shrek was a hoax

Scott Gleeson | USA TODAY

The official Twitter account for the University of Toledo suggested it would change the school's mascot to DreamWorks Animation character Shrek in a Tuesday morning post that was meant to be a joke.

The tweet said if it received 500,000 retweets the school would change its mascot to Shrek, the green ogre popularized on the big screen.

The tweet later was deleted.

University of Toledo media relations specialist Christine Billau told USA TODAY Sports by phone that the tweet was not meant to be taken literally, and that a change wouldn't be fair to the school's current mascot, Rocky the Rocket.

"We are definitely not changing the school mascot to Shrek," she said. "The tweet was meant to be fun, but it caused too much of a distraction."

Toledo's sports rival, Bowling Green, tweeted that it had "too much pride to ever sell out our mascots for a few retweets."

Toledo's social media accounts are run by trained employees in the university's marketing and communications department. Tweets are made with some oversight but Billau said Tuesday's Shrek tweet followed a pattern of funny memes and joking posts that the social media team uses to "engage and have some fun" — without direct supervisory approval. The athletics communications department was unaware of the tweet.

Messages made to DreamWorks Animation in relation to the tweet were not immediately returned.

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