Spuds MacKenzie ("The Original Party Animal") is a fictional bull terrier dog character used for an extensive advertising campaign marketing

Bud Light Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in oth ...

beer in the late 1980s. The Spuds MacKenzie

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

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 Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

advertising agency. The dog first showed up in a Bud Light

Super Bowl XXI Super Bowl XXI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

ad in 1987. '
archived
'' The dog was portrayed by a female bull terrier named Honey Tree Evil Eye, or Evie for short. Evie was from

Woodstock, Illinois Woodstock is a city in and the county seat of McHenry County, Illinois, McHenry County, Illinois, United States. It is located 51 miles northwest of Chicago, making it one of the city's outer-most suburbs. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

, and lived in

North Riverside, Illinois North Riverside is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 7,426. Geography North Riverside is located at (41.846222, -87.829585). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, North ...

, with her owner's family, where she died in 1993. Anheuser-Busch sponsored many dogs from the kennel in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

where Evie was born. The Spuds McKenzie ad campaign was not without its share of

controversy Controversy (, ) is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of conflicting opinion or point of view. The word was coined from the Latin '' controversia'', as a composite of ''controversus'' – "turned in an op ...

. Shortly after Spuds' rise to fame, it was learned that the dog, portrayed as male in the ads, was actually female. 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 James Strom Thurmond Sr. (December 5, 1902 – June 26, 2003) was an American politician who represented South Carolina in the United States Senate from 1954 to 2003. Before his 49 years as a senator, he served as the 103rd governor of South ...

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. By Christmas 1987, more legal action resulted from Bud Light's use of ads featuring Spuds dressed as Santa. Advertisements for alcohol beverages cannot reference Santa Claus in states such as Ohio. In 1989, the

Center for Science in the Public Interest The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a Washington, D.C.–based non-profit watchdog and consumer advocacy group. History and funding CSPI is a consumer advocacy organization. Its focus is nutrition and health, food safety ...

, along with Mothers Against Drunk Driving, alleged that Anheuser-Busch was pitching the dog to children. Although the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...

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 Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

' ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the ...

''. The house number in this advertisement's last segment is 1989, the year Spuds was retired.

References

{{Super Bowl commercials 1980s television commercials 1983 animal births 1993 animal deaths Advertising and marketing controversies Advertising campaigns American television commercials Anheuser-Busch advertising Beer mascots Dog mascots Real-life animal mascots Individual dogs Male characters in animation Super Bowl commercials

See also

References