Genie in a green bottle!
Media reports on the ill effects of fizzy soft drinks on teeth, gut and goodness knows what else appeared regularly in the mid-eighties. My parents persistently reminded me about my cola intake of one a week and the ‘havoc’ it caused to my tender intestines and robust teeth! With no social media to aid and abet them, they relied on mainstream media which back then offered ‘facts’ spewed out by dull, qualified doctors in white and ‘real, cool’ journalists wearing glasses. I succumbed to their pressure at some point and stopped drinking cola altogether. With that I lost most of my friends and my high ‘cool quotient’.
Something monumental happened a few months after I turned away from cola.
A triangular faced, two dots for eyes and a few squiggly lines for hair — brand ambassador for 7UP — the adorable Fido Dido danced into my life, spreading wisdom, cheer and a can do attitude. Through his effervescent presence, he reminded me ‘It’s cool to be clear’. I soon became a closet fizzy drinker just to be in close contact with the genie in the 7UP bottle.
Alongside the release of Bobby Mcferrin’s chart buster ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ and the launch of internet into daily life, Fido Dido hurtled his way into the wide world carrying his wiry frame and jolly moves. He was a doodle baby, birthed on a napkin in a cocktail bar in New York in 1985 by Sue Rose. He was christened by Sue’s friend Joanne Ferrone two days later. They had him stenciled on T-shirts with the credo: “Fido is for Fido, Fido is against no one” and within a year the T-shirts became a wearable VIP pass into the hottest nightclubs in New York.
Soon PepsiCo spotted his potential. Fido Dido was launched as the mascot on 7UP cans and bottles. T-shirts, mugs, wall paper and other paraphernalia followed. Many people penned intensely wise words under the heady influence of 7UP, including yours truly.
Fido Dido became the past, the present and the future to our generation.
A 1993 video game developed by Teeny Weeny Games, set to be published by Kaneko USA had Fido Dido as the protagonist. He had a narrow escape from being immortalised into a computer game that would have frozen him in to a set of meaningless, repetitive and violent moves as he wound his way into a virtual world to locate his abducted friends. Fido Dido relinquished his position as 7UP’s brand ambassador to Mr Cool Spot before such a computer game was launched. Phew….!
To his creators, he was ageless, thoughtful, chill and compassionate towards one and all. In their bid to bring in the feel of ultimate ‘coolness’, Pepsi’s marketing team had not fully imbibed the reason Fido Dido was created originally by Sue and Joanne.
Whether advocating for Amnesty International, selling 7UP or branding one of the top selling active wear lines in Brazil, Fido Dido is still recognized worldwide as a pervasive pop culture icon.
In 2018, 7Up introduced a limited edition of six vintage designs from 1950s through the 2000s to connect with millennials. The drink was packaged in plastic bottles. Wonder what the millennials felt about the use of plastic to merchandise someone who had been born in the ‘bottle’ era.
Thirty five years later Fido Dido’s message ‘It’s cool to be clear’ still remains universal. He recently reappeared as PepsiCo’s mascot in several countries on the occasion of Pepsi’s 90th anniversary celebrations.
To our generation, a 7UP bottle did not just contain a fizzy drink. It contained a genie called Fido Dido who emerged when we opened the bottle and ‘Put the chill right back into our lives.”
