Jesse's 9th

This photo shows Jesse on the left and his alter ego, Spuds Mackenzie, on the right.

One thing I've noticed about San Diego in the past two years: its collective memory of Budweiser and Spuds Mackenzie is fading. It used to be the second I took Jesse outdoors, any passerby -- in a car, on a bike, a jogger, a pedestrian, construction worker, a cop, whoever -- would stop and yell out, "Hey! It's Spuds Mackenzie!" or "Hey, look, it's the Budweiser dog!" I used to keep a tally whenever I walked the dog: how many mentions of "Spuds" today? Usually the count exceeded one dozen for any given walk.

And then when we moved to the Seattle area in the late 1990s, we were stunned that nobody, and I mean nobody, ever referred to Jesse as Spuds Mackenzie, nor made reference to Budweiser beer. Instead, the reference was something competely different. Old retired men, nice ladies in the neighborhood, construction workers, even little kids on bicycles would roll by shouting out, "Hey, there's General Patton's dog!"

General Patton's dog!?! How would a little kid know that? But sure enough, this was the common reference in Seattle. I guess they never marketed Budweiser beer up in the Pacific Northwest.

But, strangely, even now in San Diego, the most common reference is "General Patton's dog". Oh, I still hear the occasional reference to Spuds, but what I hear the most is Patton.

The only explanation is that a lot of people must have seen that movie on one of its regular television screenings.

One other thing. In all the years that Target Stores have used a white English Bull Terrier (complete with red circle around the left eye) as its mascot, not one passerby ever, ever, has pointed to Jesse and said, "Hey, there's the Target dog!"

I like the fact that Patton's beating them all out. I suspect Patton would have liked that too.

Posted by brian at April 19, 2004 02:11 PM