The Marketing Strategy Behind the Internet’s Favorite Green Menace

Duo is brash in the way cartoon birds can be. The lurid green owl crashed Charli XCX’s 2024 Brat tour. After Super Bowl 59, he weighed in on the Kendrick Lamar-Drake beef (one guess whose side he took). When TikTok was almost banned in January, he unmasked himself, revealing the human behind the suit.

“We were kind of worried that would ruin the Disney magic of it all,” said Parvez, “but it’s built into lore now.”

The man inside the suit was originally marketing manager Mark Pavic, who at 5’7″ is the perfect height to wear the costume. The brand has also hired dancers and other actors to fill Duo’s boots. Parvez assures ADWEEK it’s dry cleaned between activations: “It gets hot in there. It is a sweaty mascot suit.”

Duo has his own closet in Duolingo’s New York headquarters for his OOTDs, including a pink bikini, Halloween costumes, and a muscle suit (recently donned to spoof fitness influencer Aston Hall’s slightly bizarre morning routine).

Like any good diva, Duo has his own costume designer and seamstress in Laura Riviere, whom Parvez admitted has done “the weirdest things” in her role, including designing a cult robe and Duo’s famed post-butt lift bottom.

“If you look at our TikTok, it’s not really a brand channel—it’s Duo’s channel,” Orssaud added. “That’s novel for a brand; we don’t really talk about our product on social; it’s about what the owl has been up to.”

Correction 8/4 at 9.44 am ET: This story was updated to reflect that Duolingo’s pop-up event happened in August 2024, not October 2024, as initially reported. Zaria Parvez’s job title was also updated to senior global social media manager.