Meet Chiitan, the Masochistic Japanese Mascot Saving Your Ad Feed on X

Since many brands went on an advertisement on X (formerly Twitter) last year, ads on the platform have been noticeably worsening.

Conspiracy theories, crypto scams, AI, and misinformation run rampant and seem to be basically accepting anyone willing to pay to promote their posts just to regain lost revenue.

That said, some accounts are also taking this opportunity to provide entertainment to passing viewers before they scroll to another controversial topic on X.

Introducing Chiitan: A Japanese mascot taking all kinds of damage to give a few laughs or confusion to those who see their ads.

Who is Chiitan?

Even before their ads became viral on X, the Japanese mascot had been mildly popular among the online Japanese community on the site.

The mascot is more known as the unofficial representative of the city of Susaki in Shikoku, Japan. This self-proclaimed "0-year-old fairy baby" otter usually goes viral on Japanese social media for their wild antics often resulting in the mascot getting hit.

The mascot was originally inspired by an actual otter living in Susaki but has later grown into a separate personality as their following increases, as well as the mascot-inflicted injuries suffered.

By 2019, there were three otters all named Chiitan in the city of Susaki, while the mascot was having an online beef with British comedian John Oliver. Yes, it went that crazy.

Chiitan currently has 1.2 million followers on X with many of their videos garnering tens of millions of views.

Chiitan as a Mascot for X Ads

Fast forward to 2023, the masochistic mascot is experiencing another resurgence of popularity from the international scene after the account started to run ads on the platform.

In one of their earlier ads, the mascot even stylized themselves as the "god of advertising who was born to drive out advertising in the world." It comes as no surprise that the post immediately became a hit.

It helped that popular posts are being pushed further by bots interacting in the comment sections and increasing their engagement count.

If there is one good thing the surge of bots in X did, it is bringing Chiitan to more people getting tired of crypto firms and unofficial basketball pages advertising some unknown site to their timeline.

How to Get Blessed with Chiitan Ads?

While users can just visit Chiitan's official X page, it takes quite some adjusting for X to push the mascot's ads to your "For you" tab.

The easiest way to do is to like anime-related posts. Liking and following Japanese content creators seem to do just the same.

Even interacting with a Vtuber once in a while can possibly influence the platform's algorithm to recommend ads from Chiitan.

It is worth noting that it seems that Chiitan's ads do not appear on promoted posts inside the comment section and are only visible through the "For you" page.