Did you know there is a World Dog Day? Well, it’s today, and its intention is to help raise awareness about dog abuse and to recognise the number of dogs that need rescuing. Now, can you think of brands that use dogs in their logos?

Nipper of the record label HMV (His Master’s Voice) is probably the most well known canine mascot. He was a mixed-breed dog who lived for 11 years, 1884-95.

Three years after his death, Francis Barraud, his owner, painted a picture of Nipper listening to a wind-up Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph. He did not make any headway trying to sell the painting to the Edison-Bell company but when he approached The Gramophone Company to borrow a brass horn to replace the original horn in the painting, the manager there said they would buy the painting if he replaced the machine with a Berliner disc gramophone. The company bought it for £100 pounds. A small road near the dog’s final resting place in Kingston upon Thames, UK, was named Nipper Alley in 2010.

Hush Puppies is another well-known brand that has a dog, a basset hound, as its logo. Reportedly, the name comes from a traditional Southern American snack of deep fried cornballs that were originally made to feed barking dogs to quieten them. A brand manager for Wolverine World Wide, the company that owned the Hush Puppies brand, on a sales trip to south-eastern US chanced upon them and decided to name this brand Hush Puppies as ‘barking dogs’ in the slang of the day meant ‘tired feet’. The brand was founded in 1958 following work by Wolverine to develop a practical method of pigskin tanning for the US military. Pigskin was considered one of the most sturdy leathers and the government was keen on its use in gloves and other protective gear for soldiers.

North American bus service Greyhound has a logo featuring a dog of the same breed. The name springs from the inaugural run of a bus network’s route from Superior, Wisconsin to Wausau, Wisconsin.

While passing through a small town, the reflection of the bus in a store window reminded route operator Ed Stone of a greyhound dog, and he adopted that name for that segment of the Blue Goose Lines. The Greyhound name became popular and later applied to the entire network.

Games company Zynga’s logo is modelled on an American bulldog, CEO Mark Pincus’ pet Zinga. an American Bulldog. “She is our inspiration because she liked to be in the centre of the the action, she was playful, loyal, and a lovable, good soul” and her spirit is the company’s guide, says a note on the firm’s website.

In India, Cheeka the pug became rather a sensation after it featured in telecom firm Hutch’s (now Vodafone) advertising campaign, with the tagline ‘Wherever you go, our network follows’. It also led to an increase in the sale of pugs, with prices multiplying several-fold. Minister and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi had said that this ad had set off an unwelcome demand for pugs, which were not native to India, whose climate did not suit them.

Compiled by Sravanthi Challapalli

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW