Fido Dido is a cartoon character of a male youth created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose. The character was first doodled by Rose on a napkin in a restaurant in 1985, and Ferrone came up with the name the following day.
History
Rose and Ferrone initially stenciled the character onto T-shirts that became popular in New York City. The shirts featured the character's official mantra: "Fido is for Fido. Fido is against no one. Fido is youth. Fido has no age. Fido sees everything. Fido judges nothing. Fido is smart. Fido is innocent. Fido is powerful. Fido comes from the past. Fido is the future."
Advertising
The character was licensed to PepsiCo in 1988 but did not gain widespread attention until the early 1990s, when he appeared on numerous products, including stationery, boxer shorts, and advertisements for 7 Up. In the United States, Fido Dido was replaced by Cool Spot as the 7 Up mascot due to the Dr Pepper Snapple Group owning the brand in that region; Fido Dido was subsequently used to promote Slice, another PepsiCo beverage. He reappeared in the 2000s on 7 Up cans and advertising worldwide. In 2018, he was featured in Vintage Series cans, and in 2022, he starred in a new series of commercials. Fido Dido was also used on PepsiCo's Turkish soft drink Fruko.
Other Appearances
- Television: Fido Dido appeared in Saturday morning cartoon promotional bumpers on CBS from 1990 to 1993.
- Publishing: A graphic novel titled Fido Dido: Life In the Third Lane was published in paperback in 1989. A magazine dedicated to the character was released in the United Kingdom in 1992. A comic strip also ran in the teenage magazine YM.
- Video Game: A video game titled Fido Dido was developed by Kaneko and Bits Studios for the Super NES and Sega Genesis. Although completed, it was never officially released because Kaneko's United States branch shut down in 1994. The Genesis version later became available online unofficially.
- Animation: Fido Dido appears as a bystander in the 2009 animated short Logorama.
- Mural: A large mural of Fido Dido was painted on a building in Guayaquil, Ecuador, in the early 1990s. After fading over time, it was repainted in 2019 following a news article by El Universo.
Spin-off
Pepper Ann, a spin-off of the Fido Dido comic strip, was later adapted into a Disney television series.
