THE NOWHERE-NEAR COMPLETE GUIDE TO ADVERTISING MASCOT SUPERHEROES : WHAT A DOG WHAT A DOG WHAT A MIGHTY MIGHTY DOG

Dogs are not only man's best friends, they also pack some genuine advertising punch. Try and think of an industry which hasn't ever employed a dog mascot. Prostitution, I hear you say? Are you asking? No, I would never sell my body, but I'm flattered that you've asked.

Superhero dog mascots are a natural intersection between advertising and pop culture animism -- there are hundreds of animal superheroes, after all, and a sizable number of them are dogs! Exciting, no? I don't know, I couldn't say for certain. I'm still stunned that you asked about prostitution. Also, I changed my mind. For you, it's $300. $1500 for the whole night.

Now, superhero dog mascots!

Rubbing his butt on the Earth. And who can stop him?

Mighty Dog (Purina)
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, there was one brand which was synonymous with "wet food." Imagine having that as your claim to fame. "We're the wet food people!" Mighty Dog was the high-flaying, dinner-saving superdog which brought suppertime succor to his canine compatriots the world over. While early ads took "Mighty Dog" figuratively, it was a natural progression (given that the Eighties had seen superheroes take to popular television and film series) to deck their spokesdog out in superhero togs and send him flying.

I had a million of these. Hot dogs were my
primary meal back then...

Der Wienerdog (Der Wienerschnitzel)
The brightly colored hound dog which represented the Der Wienerschnitzel fast food chain (I realize that it should be "The Wienerschnitzel fast food chain" or "Der Wienerschnitzel fast food chain," since Der and The are the same word, but ... well, at least this aside helped me eat up a couple of lines). may have crossed breeds -- he is certainly, himself, no wiener dog -- but he was a solid mascot for the hot dog restaurant's needs for a damn good time. Before he was replaced with a paranoid wiener in the 90s. A weird time.

Kahn's Superdog (Hillshire Farms / Kahn's & Co)
To celebrate the purchase of Kahn's markets by quainty sausagemongers Hillshire Farms, what better mascot to turn to than a dog? I guess if you're trying to recall the image of a dog stealing sausages from a fat butcher, like in some cartoon from 1911, dogs are your go-to. But imagine how much havoc a superdog could wreak -- stealing entire butcher's shops, butcher and all. At least it's not one of those mascots which is the same kind of animal as the ones the company sells for consumption ... or is it?

Shamelessly yoinked from someone's eBay listing.