Breaking Bad faces up to more awards! BRANDORA Editorial Staff - October 2014

 
Personalised mask company announces two Breaking Bad characters as Q3 top sellers

Mask-arade, the original celebrity and personalised mask company, has announced the Q3 winners of its top-selling face mask license awards. And they are... a chemistry teacher turned drug dealer and his junior partner! Millions of fans of the multi-award-winning television series Breaking Bad, however, know them as Heisenberg, the secret criminal identity of the show’s protagonist Walter White, and Jesse Pinkman, Walter’s former student and now drug-producing ally. The two Breaking Bad characters top the latest 100 best sellers list compiled from the enormous — and enormously popular — Mask-arade range of licensed face masks.

Founded in 2008, Mask-arade has enjoyed steady sales growth, boosted this year by retail success through both HMV and The Works. Recent popular additions to the product range have further enhanced sales. They include a desktop standee of Walter-as-Heisenberg in one of the iconic Hazmat (hazardous materials) suits he wears to cook up crystal meth, and a mask of another Breaking Bad favourite: the cool, calm and very dangerous restaurateur and drug distributor Gustavo ‘Gus’ Fring.

Breaking Bad, the story of Walter White, a terminally ill teacher who goes into drug dealing to support his family, is a TV hit like no other. Mixing dark comedy with high drama, the show ran for five seasons and is today universally regarded as one of the finest television series ever made.

Mask-arade is now set for a successful final quarter with more fantastic licensed products in development for pre-Christmas release.

Ray Duffy, MD, Mask-arade, says, “The Breaking Bad franchise is one of the biggest and most original adult drama successes of recent years and its memorable casts and storylines are a gift to character-based products of the sort Mask-arade has made so successful. Congratulations to Heisenberg and Jesse for topping our chart!”

Gregory Economos, Senior Vice President, Global Consumer Products, Sony Pictures Entertainment, says, “Many great shows have come from Sony Pictures Television for over 50 years, including I Dream of Jeannie, Charlie’s Angels, Seinfeld and Blacklist, but Breaking Bad is unlike anything we’ve seen before. This is not just an extraordinary show but the inspiration for an inventive and original licensing campaign. We’re excited to be working with such great partners on the Breaking Bad licensing programme.”

Rocket Licensing manages the Breaking Bad licensing programme, in the UK. Joint Managing Director of Rocket, Rob Wijeratna, adds, “It’s no surprise that these masks are best-sellers. Mask-arade has translated Breaking Bad’s cult appeal into a fantastic range of products that have clearly captured the essence of the brand.”