BACK TO THE FUTURE FOR SPUDS MACKENZIE: A DISPATCH FROM A SIMPLER TIME

By JOHN YOUNGREN

Author’s Note: As part of my research on all things Spuds, I went back and found a column I wrote more than 20 years ago – April 21, 1987, to be precise – for the Daily Utah Chronicle, the campus paper at the University of Utah. This was at the height of Spuds’ popularity, and my obsession with him. (I always thought Spuds was a brilliant advertising idea, and henceforth have tried to work fun animals into my clients’ campaigns whenever given the chance.)
A few things spring to mind re-reading the column two decades later: One, it was long – about 1,000 words – which I was producing three or four days a week. It’s too long. You can tell I’m straining to overwork some of these transitions and examples, and I milk every bit out of the interview I do get to lengthen it up. I was heavily influenced by the Bob Greene (longtime Chicago newspaper columnist who also used to write for Esquire) “slice-of-life” style, which was reflected in a lot of my work at the time.
Second, as a fellow PR practitioner myself now in a later life, I stand humbled and amazed at the conceit of Mr. Stolberg staying “in character” throughout the interview. Though he was being interviewed constantly about Spuds MacKenzie, he certainly has his answers down pat, and all of them are clever and amusing.
Finally, it’s amazing to think about doing something like this in the pre-Internet age. I couldn’t just Google Spuds and see what came up – in those days, it was hit-and-miss calls to big corporate switchboards and explaining myself time and again to receptionists and assistants. All these years later, I’m still stunned I got someone like Mr. Stolberg to call me back; these experiences were true brushes with greatness (especially considering he had 38 other media types to respond to) for this kid while in college.
That leads to one last point: The Bangles reference aside, could you imagine Spuds today? The Internet would be his primary vehicle; there’d be Spuds fan clubs and blogs and viral videos and it’d all exist in this virtual world. The campaign would be much bigger these days, I’d bet. And not as quick to burn out. Ah, but it was a simpler day.
For now, as originally headlined (and without anything corrected):

Every Day Is A Party With This Potato

Sure, it’s not the most earth-shattering news I’ve ever delivered. It’s not keeping me up all night. It may not even be true. In fact, what I’m going to describe in the space below isn’t likely to really startle anyone else, either.
Nevertheless, the news I had did get the following responses Monday:
“That just takes all the macho fun out of drinking beer,” said one person.
“I want to see him without his T-shirt now,” said another.
“I think it will disappoint girls the most, but other than that – no problem,” said one U. student.
“I think his sexual preferences are his own business,” said another.
The Question: What’s got everyone so worked up? Why have we just heard references to sex, liquor and nudity?
The Answer, Part I: Do you know Spuds MacKenzie? He’s the “Original Party Animal” from the Bud Light beer commercials. He’s made his fame and fortune as a stud who knows how to party; as an animal who’s made a name pourin’ down Bud with bikini-clad babes.
The Answer, Part II: He’s a she.
The Qualifier: We think.

HOT POTATO

Spuds is featured prominently in a full-page advertisement in the May 7 issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
The ad is truly representative of Spuds’ image. “Spuds knows there’s no better way to party than with an ice cold Bud Light,” it reads. “So get up. Get down. Get funky. And party right with Bud Light.”
In the ad, Spuds is surrounded by a variety of colorful streamers and balloons. In front of him there’s a big, foamy glass of Bud Light beer; to one side is an empty bottle of Bud Light. He’s wearing – in addition to his multi-colored party hat and his black patch over one eye – a dark green sweatshirt with the Greek letters Delta Omicron Gamma on the front. That says it all: DOG.
Spuds has been too hot to leash ever since his first national television appearance nearly three months ago, when he appeared on a Bud Light commercial during the Denver Broncos-New York Giants Super Bowl. In the time since, Spuds has been on television shows around the country; has recorded five different TV commercials; has appeared in numerous national magazines and has written an autobiography “in his own words.”
But, most recently, Spuds’ image has been tarnished somewhat. Several of those supermarket tabloids have revealed that (according to sources who “know”) Spuds, the beer-drinkin’, babe-lovin’ stud, is really female. No macho fellow here.

DEAR SIR OR MADAM

So I stopped quizzing people around the U. and went directly to someone who might actually know. I posed my question to a man named Bill Stolberg in St. Louis, Mo. Bill works for a public relations firm that handles the Bud Light account. In other words, he’s a Spuds spokesman.
“Spuds really just lets me hang out with him,” Stolberg says. “I take some of his calls for him. He’s in Hollywood doing a photo shoot today.”
Stolberg has heard my is-he-or-isn’t-she question before. “Some of the tabloids printed that a while ago,” he said. “But Spuds is cool about it. He figures when somebody rises to stardom, people are always going to take pot shots. He says, ‘don’t worry about it – that’s cool’.”
Stolberg said it hasn’t come up beyond that. “I’ve never asked (Spuds) any more about it,” he says. “I’d be embarrassed to, if you want to know the truth. Do you ask people you know what gender they are?”
Good point.
“Spuds MacKenzie,” he said. “The individual that transcends gender.”
Stolberg said there’s a lot about Spuds that remains a mystery. “He’s real private about a lot of stuff,” he said.
Stolberg did know that Spuds began his career with Budweiser about three years ago, when he was hired as a – wait for it – Senior Party Consultant for Bud Light beer. In the beginning, his television spots ran only regionally – in California, and later Texas. While his print advertisements were more widespread, it wasn’t until after this year’s Super Bowl that, in Stolberg’s words, “all hell broke loose.”
“He’s on fire, there’s no doubt about that,” says Stolberg of Spuds. “He’s got his own line of clothes; he’s producing a couple of oldies albums. He’s always a big hit.”
So big, in fact, that Stolberg said he had 39 phone messages from media types looking for the word on Spuds last Friday alone. The Animal’s fan mail comes in “by the bundles,” and he’s constantly being invited to parties across the country, many times for homecoming or graduation events. “Everybody wants him,” says Stolberg.
Including the Bangles. The all-female rock band invited Spuds to a party in Los Angeles the night before the Grammy Awards. “It was fantastic,” says Stolberg, who accompanied Spuds on the trip. “We had Spuds and the Spudettes there. And we got to ride in a big limo and meet the rock stars and celebrities. Spuds is a unique individual. He’s a partyin’ dude.”
Or “dudette,” as the case may be. But I guess that’s an answer we may never have.

HIDDEN IDENTITY

There are other questions surrounding Spuds, but Stolberg didn’t have many answers. He didn’t know how old the Animal really is, for example. “I would guess he’s in his late 20s or early 30s,” Stolberg surmises.
Spuds has an answer for such age questions, by the way: “Fun knows no age,” he says. “But it does have a legal minimum.”
Much of the information regarding Spuds’ personal life is that which Stolberg has discerned over the long haul. “He speaks his own language,” Stolberg said. “It’s a language understood only by other party animals. One shake of an eyebrow might be good for 200 English words.”
These days, one of Spuds’ other worries centers on some of the more provocative offers he gets from around the country. Stolberg had a letter on his desk Monday from Miami, Fla., where a family sent some “cheesecake pictures of their English Bull Terrier Sara, whom they thought Spuds might be interested in.”
Which leads us, then, to a final point. What kind of dog is Spuds, exactly?
“We don’t say that ‘D-word’ around here,” Stolberg says. “Spuds is an Original Party Animal, that’s all. But he was asked once what he would be if he couldn’t be an Original Party Animal, and he said he would want to be an English Bull Terrier.”
Of course. Need we say more?
Except for maybe, as Spuds would, “Party often – but party cool.”


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ON THE DOT: Now back in business (with a modified rating system) the “John Youngren Dot Com” blog (once known as “Pop Stew”) should be updated regularly. And remember, as always, this is just an exhibition; it is not a competition – so please, no wagering. To contact John, e-mail johnyoungren@mac.com