After failing to inspire consumers with its ads featuring rugby players and cattle ranchers, and then pinning its hopes for the Playbook on Freddy Mercury singing “Flash!  Whoa-oh-oh!” Blackberry makers Research in Motion have scrapped their putative Be Bold campaign featuring the following cartoon superheroes:

From left to right, we have Gogo Girl, who saves the day with a brilliant strategy, a smile and a spatula; Max Stone, who’s tough, proud and a little wild; Trudy Foreal, who is not afraid to call it as she sees it and Justin Steele, the advocate who sticks up for his friends. (Thanks, Globe and Mail!)  Gender and racial stereotypes aside, where’s Crashy McOutage, the overworked network administrator, or the ghostly I.M. Dead, a metaphor for the Playbook itself?

Last time I checked, Blackberry catered to a business audience, not elementary school children, which explains the backlash these characters have received.  I guess they’ll hafta cancel that order of stuffed animals and collectible figurines…