Dogs have made their mark throughout history. Some are real, some are imagined, but they are all memorable.
Gidget, a female Chihuahua, was seen in a Taco Bell advertising campaign as the “Taco Bell Chihuahua” from 1997 to 2000, died of a stroke last week at the age of 15, but hear is six other famous dogs in advertising.
1. Lady Greyhound:
“Lady Greyhound” was introduced by the Greyhound Corporation. A purebred Greyhound was born in Clay Center, Kansas, and she was introduced by the company in 1957 on The Steve Allen Show. At that time, with black eyes, the white and gold dog was just a 10-pound puppy but she had shortly became the face of the franchise.
“Lady Greyhound” had traveled from across the country more than 50 times and she often wore a rhinestone collar and tiara, at charity events along the way to make appearances by 1959.
In Detroit, she established the new Greyhound terminal by cutting through a ribbon of dog biscuits and for photos, she posed with Miss Universe Beauty Pageant contestants, and throughout the country, she was a regular guest on television shows. Lady Greyhound is a very popular dog forever.
2. Spuds Mackenzie:
During a 1987 Super Bowl ad, the dog was introduced as the mascot for Anheuser-Busch Spuds Mackenzie, a white English bull terrier with a black mark around her left eye. The Spuds character was actually male character but a female name Honey Tree Evil Eye was given in the commercials.
Spuds toured the world with three beautiful Spudettes as the canine predecessor to Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Man in the World in a series of wildly successful commercials. Anheuser-Busch capitalized on Spuds by selling t-shirts, beach towels, and other merchandise bearing the dog’s likeness.
Spuds was being used to market alcohol to kids was believed by some some public interest groups, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). In 1989, Anheuser-Busch dumped the dog, when it debuted the Bud Bowl. And in 1993, Honey Tree Evil Eye died of kidney failure.
3. Nipper:
In England from 1884-1895, Nipper, a terrier who supposedly got his name because he bite the legs of visitors and he lived a quite ordinary life. In the history of advertising he is one of the most popular dogs today. Nipper’s owner English painter Francis Barraud, painted a picture of Nipper staring into a phonograph machine and titled it, “His Master’s Voice” after 3 years of Nipper’s death.
Barraud shopped the painting to the Edison Bell Company, one of the leading manufacturers of phonographs, but was turned down. If Barruad was willing to alter the image to resemble one of its machines, then the Gramophone Company agreed to buy the image. In 1900, the image was patented because Barraud happily agreed and in 1910, Nipper was celebrated posthumously in advertisements beginning.
Since then for several companies, including Victor and RCA, Nipper has been used to promote products.
4. Axelrod:
Axelrod was very long-faced dog and he was kept by the A-shaped doghouse. During the 1960s, that was the gist of Flying A’s advertising campaign which starred the continually worried-looking pursue picture.
Axelrod, who lived in the “house that worry built,” starred in numerous television and print ads for Flying A, a national service station business owned by Tidewater Petroleum. In 1966, Axelrod was retired when Tidewater Petroleum’s stations were purchased by Phillips 66 and Getty.
5. Bullseye:
This dog is known as a white bullseye. Since 1999, a bull terrier had a target painted over his or her left eye or it was a birthmark.
Bullseye’s makeup artist applies the target using nontoxic red paint, and trainer, and makes about two dozen appearances each year and travels with her own makeup artist. Bullseye lives a fairly normal life when she is not in the spotlight.
McMillan told the Anchorage Daily News during Bullseye’s guest appearance at the 2008 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that she has about 20 playmates that she runs around with. Also he added that otherwise, she is just a dog. She does a lot of lying around.
6. Ubu Roi:
You maybe familiar with Ubu Roi, if you had seen Family Ties, Brooklyn Bridge or Spin City and did not change the channel at once after the last line of every episode. For Gary David Goldberg’s production company, the black labrador retriever is the mascot. A photograph of Ubu Roi holding a Frisbee appears at the end Goldberg’s a fore mentioned shows. “Sit, Ubu, sit!” and “Good dog!” is told by Goldberg on off-screen before Ubu responds with a single bark.
After the 1896 satirical play by Alfred Jarry, Ubu Roi is named, who was died in 1984. “Sit, Ubu, Sit” is the title of Goldberg’s autobiography.
