Spuds MacKenzie is a fictional dog character created for use in an extensive advertising campaign marketing Bud Light beer in the late 1980s. The Spuds MacKenzie mascot and campaign were created by a 23-year-old art director, Jon Moore. At the time he was working at Needham, Harper & Steers, a Chicago, Illinois, advertising agency. The dog first showed up in a Bud Light Super Bowl XXI ad in 1987. During the height of his popularity, large amounts of Spuds merchandise was available, such as plush toys and t-shirts.
The dog, a Bull Terrier, was not without its share of controversy. Shortly after Spuds' rise to fame it was learned that the dog, who was portrayed as male in the commercials, was actually female. The ads were also the subject of attacks and calls for censorship by temperance-oriented groups. Soon after the ads were first aired in 1987, Senator Strom Thurmond began his own media campaign, claiming that the beer maker was using Spuds to appeal to children for the purpose of getting them interested in their product at an early age. By Christmas 1987, more legal action resulted from Budweiser's use of ads featuring Spuds dressed as Santa, which is illegal in states such as Ohio.
In 1989, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, along with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, alleged that Anheuser-Busch was pitching the dog to children. Although the Federal Trade Commission found no evidence to support that allegation, Anheuser-Busch decided to retire Spuds in 1989, partly because they felt the character's image had started to overshadow the product.
The character appeared in Bud Light's advertisement in Super Bowl LI as a ghost helping a man named Brian reunite with his friends in an homage to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The house number in this advertisement's last segment is 1989, paying homage to the year Spuds was retired.
The dog's real name was Honey Tree Evil Eye (October 7, 1983 - May 31, 1993). She was from Malvern, Pennsylvania, but moved to Warsaw, Indiana at a very young age. She died of renal failure in North Riverside, Illinois.
Video Spuds MacKenzie
Notes
Maps Spuds MacKenzie
External links
- Spuds MacKenzie commercial
- What breed of dog was Spuds MacKenzie?
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