Thursday’s ad is for Bud Light from 1988, during the Spuds McKenzie days. I never a big fan of Spuds, a booze hound, womanizing anthropomorphized pup. He debuted during the 1997 Super Bowl, a couple of years after Pete’s Wicked Ale started out with their dog Millie on their label. He was also a Bull Terrier, like Spuds McKenzie. To make maters worse, even though Pete’s use of his own dog on the label preceded Bud Light using a similar dog, they threatened legal action and, as they say, the big dog always wins. It’s never a fair fight. Pete changed their label and Spuds went on to become an advertising legend. After all, “he’s the guru of good times.”
Too bad there wasn’t a craft-brew-loving trademark atty willing to defend Pete Slosberg pro bono; I think even a countersuit could have been possible. Fahgawdssake (as the late Herb Caen used to spell it), Pete did it first, & that’s what SHOULD matter in these arguments – not to mention a few ballsy judges telling the big corps to get lost!