Singapore’s Virus Superheroes No Match for Upset Soccer Fans

(Bloomberg) -- A team of new mascots introduced by Singapore’s government to raise public awareness about coronavirus measures was abruptly pulled after the superheros ended up offending soccer fans instead.

The government said it received “quite a lot of feedback” on the five characters dubbed the ‘Virus Vanguard’ and is now reviewing the campaign.

“We are sorry if we offended anyone,” it said on its Facebook page. “As this is the first time we are exploring this content format, we appreciate your patience.”

The characters had included ‘Fake News Buster,’ a superhero who “wields the Mallet of Truth,” and ‘Dr Disinfector,’ whose backstory was that she was shrunk to the size of a micro-organism in a failed experiment and “unwittingly flushed” down the toilet by her colleagues.

The controversy, though, seems to have erupted after ‘MAWA Man,’ the superhero whose intense “hatred” of the Liverpool Football Club gave rise to his power to enforce social distancing, led to a petition set up on change.org.

“The Liverpool supporters in Singapore unanimously condemn the character MAWA Man and request for it to be withdrawn from this campaign,” reads the petition, which attracted over 500 signatures.

The number of daily coronavirus cases in the city-state rose past 1,000 on Monday for the first time since the pandemic began amid a surge in infections among migrant workers.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.