Pets.com

Pets.com is a former dot-com enterprise that went bankrupt in 2000. Its former Nasdaq stock symbol was IPET. Today it is considered a leading icon of the dot com bust of the early 2000s.

The Pets.com sock puppet

While Pets.com's success at selling pet supplies at their website pets.com was dubious at best, the company did have one massive marketing success: its advertising icon, the unnamed Pets.com dog.

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The puppet, performed by Michael Ian Black, was a simple sock puppet with button eyes, flailing arms, a stick microphone emblazoned with 'pets.com', and a Timex watch around its neck. Millions of dollars were spent on commercials featuring this dog from its introduction in August, 1999 into 2000, with a notable appearance of the Pets.com dog during a commercial in Super Bowl XXXIV in January 2000.

Related Topics:
Michael Ian Black - Timex - Watch - 1999 - 2000 - Super Bowl XXXIV

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As the puppet's notoriety grew through 1999 and 2000, it gained almost cult status and widespread popularity. The puppet made an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America, Nightline, Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, and even had a balloon made in its image for the 1999 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Related Topics:
Cult status - Good Morning America - Nightline - Live with Regis and Kathie Lee - Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

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In addition to the media appearances the Pets.com puppet made, merchandising was also done for the company including clothing, other trinkets, and a retail version of the sock puppet that delivered five of the puppet's famous lines (shown above).

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Critics argued that the attention given to the puppet was simply advertising overexposure and not true popularity. They pointed out that the appearances by the puppet on Good Morning America and Nightline happened soon after Disney, ABC's parent company, bought a stake in Pets.com.

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As Pets.com's financial status began to become desperate, the company attempted a defamation lawsuit against the writer/comedian Robert Smigel—specifically, his character, Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog that frequently appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien beginning in 1998. During a few of Triumph's routines, Triumph claimed that the Pets.com puppet had "stolen his routine," among other things. The lawsuit was not enough to save the company. After Pets.com bankruptcy, the future of the Pets.com puppet was uncertain.

Related Topics:
Robert Smigel - Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog - Late Night with Conan O'Brien

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After the company folded, his rights were purchased by Hakan and Associates, and in 2002 the mascot began work for an USA automotive loan company called 1-800-BAR-NONE, a mortgage and refinancing firm which took advantage of the interest rates dropped by the Federal Reserve in the wake of the dot-com bust.

Related Topics:
2002 - 1-800-BAR-NONE

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