In the early eighties, New York City had been exploding with art, experimentation, and expression. The AIDS epidemic was on the rise, Keith Harring was spray painting the walls of the subway stations and Jean-Michel Basquiat was mystifying the world with his work with Andy Warhol. Artists would walk around the streets in silk screened shirts they had specially designed and a new movement seemed to pop up on every corner.
In the midst of this, Sue Rose, a cartoonist and art director for the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, would meet her friend Joanna Ferrone, the president of a stock photo company, every day after work at a bar named Downtown. They had a particular set of views in mind; that everyone should be comfortable with themselves, be able to find relaxation, uniqueness in their own personality, and to handle any situation with a sense of humor. Joanna wanted to make that philosophy, called “cartoon living,” known together in the form of their art explosion. Sue thought she was crazy, but, for nearly a year Joanna would bring up the idea.
In 1985, Sue and Joanna were at Downtown with a group of friends and Sue started doodling on a napkin. In front of her was a friend, John Hanning, a small, blond artist and AIDS activist. With a pen and fifteen lines, she drew a little caricature of him. It got a laugh from the group and Joanna, immediately, was infatuated with the little design.
She took at home with her and the next day she told Sue that his name was Fido Dido (pronounced Fi-doh Dee-doh) and that he was their guy, their product. Sue, thinking Joanna was crazy at first, agreed and they built the brand together. He was a new symbol created in a community of artists and activists.
Joanna would buy t shirts in bulk and haul them to the printer to get them silk screened with Fido Dido designs. Soon, this caught the attention of fashion designer Patricia Fields, who had the designs displayed at her boutique. Immediately, Fido Dido took off. The character was expanded into a family of characters, that being Fido Dido, Fido’s Fido, Lido Dido, F.D., Boy Fido, Fido Doody, Video Dido, Danger Dido, Jo Dido, Fido Jerk, Fido Doodles, Howdy Dido, The Unknown Fido, Fido Boys, Dribble Dido, and Fido Gato. They would be introduced properly in the book Fido Dido 101, Or, Living Life in the Third Lane; a collection of drawings and gags featuring the characters without a narrative illustrated by Sue Rose and written with Joanna Ferrone.
Joanna and Sue founded Fido Inc. and struck a deal with United Media Licensing to have the character licensed across the world by different companies on a multitude of merchandise. They would be printed on shirts, pants, shoes, watches, cups, towels, stationery, they would have their own dolls, their own shampoos, cologne, Fido was a phenomenon. Clothes would appear in stores across the nation like Macy’s, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Marshall Fields, Ivey’s, JC Penny’s, and soon would spread globally. The Fido Dido line also had a credo that adorned many of the pieces. This credo was:
Fido is for Fido.
Fido is against no one.
Fido is Youth.
Fido has no age.
Fido sees everything.
Fido judges nothing.
Fido is Innocent.
Fido is Powerful.
Fido comes from the past.
Fido is the future.
In 1988, PepsiCo approached Joanna about using Fido as a new spokesperson for 7-Up outside of the U.S. Excited to have the character branch further and finally be animated in commercials, Joanna signed a 5 year contract with PepsiCo to have Fido become the new face of 7-Up. Given that PepsiCo didn’t own 7-Up in the United States, he was instead used to promote their fruit drink, Slice. 7-Up’s American mascot was also introduced that same year, a small red circle wearing sunglasses named Cool Spot. UML intended to have a comic strip enter newspapers in the United States in 1989, however this seems to have never come to fruition.
Fido continued to spread. In 1990 CBS produced about 125 spots to be played between programming with animated versions of Fido and the rest of the cast. Two years later in the UK, he got his own magazine. Around 1992 he appeared in his own comic strip in YM magazine. The next year, a spin off to the character named Pepper Ann, debuted in her own strip.
In 1993, Fido was getting his own video game to be released on the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Getting far enough to be reviewed in multiple gaming magazines and have a release date, the game never saw the light of day due to the game studio shutting down the next year. (Though the Genesis version would fortunately surface online in 2022.)
In 1997, Pepper Ann would be picked up by Disney to be turned into a cartoon series. Being slightly redesigned by Mr. Warburton, Pepper Ann was a success and ran for five seasons, unfortunately entirely separated from her beginnings with Fido Dido.
Since PepsiCo had treated Fido so well in the past, the contract had been extended and Fido continued to be used occasionally as a mascot for 7-Up internationally. Fido and the rest of the cast was even being considered for an animated television show in 2000 to be produced by HIT entertainment.
By the late 2000s, Sue Rose seems to have dropped out being Fido’s artist and he was then being drawn by someone else. He was redesigned to be more current with the fashion trends at the time, being given sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt under his iconic crop top. He continued to be popular in other countries such as Brazil and India, getting a 3D animated series of 1 minute shorts being produced by Graphiti Multimedia and 7-Up commercials.
Fido’s clothing line was relaunched around this time in Brazil, with a brand new logo, seldom use of the character himself but keeping the same “cartoon living” philosophy. The clothing line seems to have faded since then unfortunately. Fido continues to appear occasionally in commercials and advertisements, appearing in one as late as 2022 in India.
In early 2023, Fido turned a new direction. Now lead entirely by co-creator Joanna Ferrone, Fido Dido is now heading towards web3 in the form of PFP NFTs drawn by artist Ralph Khoury. Currently, Ferrone is in talks with PepsiCo to get Fido Dido back into the mainstream both publicly and within the NFT market.
Sue Rose has not publicly made any comment about Fido in decades, and slowly it seems the public is forgetting who created him in the first place. A globally known character, it’s unfortunate a series never came from him. Even the comic strips, published exclusively in YM magazine, have no primary place to be read. Hopefully, Fido will be remembered as more than just a 7-Up mascot in the future, returning to his roots as a symbol of cartoon living and a kind hearted character in the art boom of NYC.