Bud Light Spuds Mackenzie

A photograph of a dog riding a wave on a red surfboard with white and yellow text on a blue background. 

Bud Light used Spuds Mackenzie, a Bull Terrier, as a marketing device in the late 1980s. The dog’s first appearance was at the 1987 Super Bowl XXI. The advertising executive Mitch Meyers created the Spuds Mackenzie character. The terrier was controversial because it was a female dog portraying a male dog and also because of the dog’s appeal to children. The Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization was just one organization to pose the allegations that Anheuser-Busch was marketing their product to minors through Spuds Mackenzie. The dog was so popular that she had started to overshadow the product so after only two years of advertisements the decision to remove her from commercials was made. 

Here a couple of commercials where Spuds Mackenzie can be seen in action: commercial one, commercial two.

As you can see from this button, Spuds Mackenzie merchandise was also very popular during the life of the advertising campaign.