Curious as to why there are more asses on State Street than usual?

These animals, with #WTFDonkey written on signs draped across their backs and led by a kind-looking man with a cowboy hat, are appearing in Madison as part of a promotion for a new mobile application being released Tuesday. The free app, called BuzzMSG, is a text messaging platform that allows users to insert images or graphics in line with text.

Bill Towell, creator of the app, said it is a product of social media company Bad Donkey Social. He said this is the first app the company has launched, and that they have been working on it for the past three years.

“We spent a lot of time on campus,” Towell said. “We started at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, got tons of help from UW Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic and, in the last year, Mu Kappa Tau at the business school has been working really closely with us so we are showing our Badger pride by coming back and launching on campus.”

Towell said this is new type of visual social messaging connects users through their email addresses. Thus, BuzzMSG can be used worldwide.

With buzzMSG people will no longer need to attach files into text messages, Towell said. However, emojis will not go away with this app either, Towell said, adding that personalized graphics will be able to be inserted in message threads when using this app.

Towell said the donkeys are mascots for the brand, and have been dubbed #WTFDonkey based on the Madison community’s reaction to seeing the animals trotting around town.