Top 5 Canine Commercial Mascots

It’s easy to have an animated animal in a commercial, having a real live dog appear is a little hardly. Sure having a dog appear in your commercial seems to be a very popular idea since dogs are cute and trainable. Except for Morris you don’t see many big time cat icons because cats pretty much just, lie there (which is why established characters like Garfield are often used). But it still takes a special something for the mascot to become popular.  Even harder when they appear in ads for things other than dog food, though the chuck wagon dog is funny. Sometimes these ads are so popular and the characters do so well liked that they are merchandised and become as popular as any celebrity.



Here are five dogs that appeared in commercials who became so popular that they eclipsed the product they were advertising!




#5.Cottonelle Dog

The one dog on this list who is here because he’s just cute. He doesn’t really have a gimmick, he’s just a Yellow Lab doing his thing. These ads aren’t the most remarkable, but they’re a lot better than those awful Charmin animated bear ads where they seem to be enjoying going to the bathroom WWAAAYYY to much!





#4.Bullseye the Target Dog

This one I put the category of potential lost. This was a Bull Terrier who served as the mascot for Target stores. While he’s a good mascot I don’t think he ever hit that popularity the others here did. He isn’t cute, he just kind of sits there with no personality. I guess he’s still around but there is nothing special about him aside from the target logo around his eye. Course that doesn’t mean there aren’t any stuffed toys in his image or anything.




#3.Nipper and Chipper the RCA dogs

Sometimes less is more, and these ads are a perfect example. All it really does is show two dogs looking at a TV or something, and that’s it. But the truth is this icon has a long history, going all the way back when to when RCA first got started! The first dog was named Nipper and the image of him listening to a phonograph was just a painting that got sold in 1900 and turned into a trademark. It took off as the company evolved and so did what it was the dog was looking at. From a phonograph to digital TV’s! There’s actually more to it but I’d be here all day. And it’s a nice simple message, saying the product is so good even a dog likes it. When the did the little dog come along?  Chipper came along in 1990 when the company decided to update their image.





#2.Spuds MacKenzie the Bud Light dog

When you think of the 80’s there are some characters which are simply part of that great decade. This is one of them. Who was Spuds MacKenzie? He was a Bull Terrier who appeared in tons of Bud Light ads back in the late 80’s. And I’ll tell you right now, this dog was cool! He knew how to rock, relax, and hung with with beautiful women. Even though the dog as played by a female (?). All of the dogs on this list had merchandise made after them but this one probably takes the cake. This character was huge, so much so that some like myself knew who he was even though we weren’t even sure what he was the mascot of! Why isn’t he around anymore? Well let’s just say probably the same reason you don’t see Joe Camel in cigarette ads anymore. In fact in today’s PC world it’s hard to believe those ads ever aired! Ah, the 80’s.





#1.Gidget the Taco Bell Dog

If Spuds ruled the 80’s, then this one ruled the 90’s! I don’t care how much you hated Taco Bell, you loved this dog! And it’s because the creators did something smart, they gave him a personality! Even old Spuds didn’t have a personalty beyond “cool badass”. This was one cool Chihuahua. This guy was everywhere and yes even I had a few of the stuffed toys (well my wife did technically). The best of these ads were the tie in’s for the awful Godzilla movie in 1998. Sadly he was retired, some said that he was racially insensitive but I say give me a break! Anyway, “¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!”






Finally, two honorable mentions because neither are real dogs.


McGruff the Crime Dog

When I grew up I loved Gruff the Crime Dog! He headlined PSA’a about safety and crime prevention. He got the idea of neighborhood watches popular as they were back in the day. He was modeled after and old detectives like Columbo. I would say he was modeled after Robert Stack but Unsolved Mysteries didn’t exist. He was real cool and  had a great way of saying his tag line “help me take a bite out of crime”! I loved those PSA’s, hey anyone remember Smokey the Bear who told us it up to us to prevent forest fires?? Or Woodsy the Owl who taught us not to litter? I still hear that song in my head, “In the city or in the woods, help keep America…looking good!).






Anyway, sorry got off topic. Ok one more…..


Pets.com Dog

Years later came this Kermit wannabe in the Pets.com Dog. This puppet was supposed to be a reporter out to get the word on Pets.com but most of the people he tried to interview basically ignored him. These were obvious ad libbed ads but the character had real personality. So much personality that he was a sensation sparking toys, appearances on talk shows, and even a balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade! A shame the company died along with the others during the dot.com crash in 2000.






So as I noted there aren’t many cats who serve as mascots, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other animals who do! I’ll be back with that list.