Spuds MacKenzie

Spuds MacKenzie in an ad.

Spuds MacKenzie ("The Original Party Animal"[1]) is a fictional dog (bull terrier) character used for an extensive advertising campaign marketing Bud Light beer in the late 1980s. The Spuds MacKenzie mascot and campaign was the idea of a 23-year-old art director, Jon Moore. At the time, he was working at Needham, Harper, and Steers, a Chicago advertising agency. The dog first showed up in a Bud Light Super Bowl XXI ad in 1987.[2]

The dog was portrayed by a female bull terrier named Honey Tree Evil Eye,[3] or Evie for short. Evie was from Woodstock, Illinois, and lived in North Riverside, Illinois, with her owner's family, where she died in 1993.[4] Anheuser-Busch sponsored many dogs from the kennel in Illinois where Evie was born.[5]

The Spuds McKenzie ad campaign was not without its share of controversy. Shortly after Spuds' rise to fame, it was learned that the dog, portrayed as male in the ads, was actually female.[5] Politicians and advocacy groups criticized the ads for promoting consumption of alcohol by children. Soon after the ads first aired in 1987, Senator Strom Thurmond began his own media campaign, claiming that the beer maker was using Spuds to appeal to children in order to get them interested in their product at an early age.[6] By Christmas 1987, more legal action resulted from Bud Light's use of ads featuring Spuds dressed as Santa.[7] Advertisements for alcohol beverages cannot reference Santa Claus in states such as Ohio.[8]

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, claiming that the character's image had started to overshadow the product.

In 2017, the character appeared in Bud Light's Super Bowl LI advertisement as a ghost who helps a man named Brian reunite with his friends; the ad was an homage to Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The house number in this advertisement's last segment is 1989, the year Spuds was retired.[9]

  1. ^ "History of Spuds MacKenzie: The Original Party Animal". 11 March 2020.
  2. ^ "Spuds McKenzie: Official Party Animal". Bull Terrier Club of Dallas. Retrieved 2012-11-23.
  3. ^ Beachamp, Rick (27 October 2011). "Dog and Kennel Magazine". Archived from the original on 27 October 2011. Retrieved 13 December 2018.
  4. ^ "Spuds MacKenzie is dead". UPI. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  5. ^ a b Eric Zorn (1987-09-13). "Spuds Is a Dud as a Party Guy - He's a Girl". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  6. ^ "Teetotaler Thurmond Raps Spuds McKenzie". Associated Press. 13 November 1987. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
  7. ^ "Spuds in Doghouse for Impersonating Santa". LA Times. 3 December 1987. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
  8. ^ Rule 4301:1-1-44 Advertising (PDF). Ohio Legislative Service. May 16, 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
  9. ^ Taylor, Kate (February 2, 2017). "Bud Light is bringing back a controversial mascot who once helped sales soar 20%". Business Insider.