Spuds MacKenzie: The Original Party Animal
Bud Light1987
Spuds MacKenzie: The Original Party Animal is a 1987 30-second television commercial for Bud Light, created by DDB Needham Worldwide, Chicago.
The line
The Original Party Animal.
Why it works
A limousine pulls up outside a club and the guest of honor appears: a bull terrier with a black patch over one eye who, by the end, is strutting across the dance floor in a white tuxedo. Bud Light's "Original Party Animal" had been a cult poster on college campuses since 1983, but this fourth-quarter spot in Super Bowl XXI, in January 1987, introduced him to a national television audience. What followed is studied as a mascot that outgrew its advertising. Within months there were more than 200 licensed Spuds products, Spuds boutiques inside Macy's and a run on bull-terrier puppies, and The New York Times later credited the dog with helping lift Bud Light sales 20 percent between 1987 and 1988 and with starting a fashion for animal pitchmen. It is equally a cautionary tale: the macho party dog turned out to be a female named Evie, and Senator Strom Thurmond led critics who said the character lured young people toward alcohol, pushing Anheuser-Busch into moderation messages.
Techniques
- Mascots and characters A bull terrier billed as the Original Party Animal becomes the beer's character, so popular that licensed merchandise spreads far beyond the advertising.
- Humour Treating a dog in a white tuxedo as the celebrity guest arriving by limousine at a nightclub gives the spot its tongue-in-cheek swagger.
Sources · 4
- Spuds MacKenzie: An Underdog’s Triumph : ‘The Original Party Animal’ Has Become the Nation’s Most Unlikely Sex Symbol
- THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Ads in Which Animals Speak Better Than Humans
- Advertising: Spuds Brews Puppy Love
- ‘Party Animal’ Spuds Changes His Line--for Holidays at Least : Change Prompted by Claim That Beer Ads Influence Children
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