A Napkin Sketch That Sold Billions of Sodas
A Friday newsletter drawn on a cocktail napkin in 1985.
J. Walter Thompson art director and cartoonist Sue Rose was at a bar in 1985.
She was bored.
So she doodled on a cocktail napkin.
Fifteen lines. A stick figure. Triangle face, squiggly hair, two dots for eyes.
Her friend Joanna Ferrone named him the next morning on her commute to work.
They printed him on T-shirts. A fashion designer named Patricia Field, who later dressed Carrie Bradshaw for six seasons of Sex and the City, put them in her boutique.
They sold out.
The character’s name was Fido Dido. His ahead of his time philosophy: “Fido is for Fido. Fido is against no one. Fido sees everything. Fido judges nothing.”
In 1988, PepsiCo called.
While Pepsi had bought 7UP’s international business from Philip Morris for $246 million in 1986, they couldn’t use the brand in the United States.
They needed a face for international markets, one that worked in any culture or language.
Those fifteen lines on a napkin just became a multinational marketing asset.
Fido Dido was never the American 7UP mascot. Americans got Cool Spot — the red circle in sunglasses (for another story I guess).
Fido would shill for Pepsi’s other beverage Slice. Ouch that’s like playing for the minor league club.
The rest of the world got Fido.
Australia. Philippines. Netherlands. India. Brazil. Turkey. Yep, even Canada.
Ecuador painted a mural of him on the side of a building large enough to be a city landmark. It’s still there.
By 1990, Fido had CBS Saturday morning bumper spots, his own magazine in the UK, a YM comic strip, merchandise at Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s and a family of sixteen spin-off characters with names like Howdy Dido, Fido Gato and for some strange reason, Fido Jerk.
In 1993, Kaneko finished a Fido Dido video game for Super NES and Sega Genesis. Box art done.
It previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show, but was never released.
That was it. Fido Dido came and went. Mostly.
He came back in the 2000s as a CGI character.
He got a 3D animated series in India.
In 2018, BBDO India put him on limited-edition vintage 7UP bottles representing the ‘90s.
Then on April 20, 2025, a TikToker posted an old Fido Dido ad from 2006 with the caption: “This is a meme from 2026. You will not understand.”
52.3 million views in nine months.
On January 3rd, 2026, someone finally made the actual meme. Tagged it #fidomaxxing. 337,000 views in three days.
Fido Dido was the first viral moment of this year.
PepsiCo didn’t do anything about it.
The character that “judged nothing” became the internet’s first obsession of 2026 because the original idea was so random that somebody found it interesting 40 years later and that was enough.
THE AD LESSON
The most powerful characters are philosophies with a face, not pitchmen with a personality.
Fido worked because he actually stood for something specific — radical non-judgment, being exactly who you are — and then never violated it.
The original Fido was timeless because he was barely anything. Fifteen lines. You can’t redesign a philosophy.
And great IP doesn’t expire. It hibernates.
That napkin sketch is now 40 years old. It’s already outlasted the brand that licensed it, the agency that deployed it and every trend it was ever used to sell.
Now it’s gotten a new life in nonsensical memes.
That TikToker who posted it in 2025 didn’t know anything about PepsiCo’s global distribution rights or the Kaneko video game or the licensing split.
They just thought it was cool.
THE DRINK: THE FIDO DIDO GIMLET.
But it’s got to be made in a vintage Fido Dido cup. Gin, fresh lime juice, splash of 7UP instead of simple syrup. Three ingredients and some technique. Nothing extra. No garnish required. Would taste real good in some vintage Fido Dido glasses.
Like the character, The Gimlet is minimal, it’s precise and it has never not been cool.
The classic version appeared in Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye in 1953. It was the drink of someone who knew exactly what they wanted and didn’t need to explain it. That one also was basically half gin, half rose lime cordial. And that was it.
Fido Dido would probably order a Gimlet if he couldn’t have a 7UP. He wouldn’t even look up from his phone. Now we make a Gimlet with 7UP. Take that innovation people.
2 oz gin
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz 7UP.
Shake with ice. Strain into a coupe. Squeeze of lime if you’re feeling generous. Think about Fido Dido as you gulp down the Gimlet, and enjoy all these compilation of all his ads.
The Drink Cart. A newsletter version of sitting at a really good bar with someone who thinks too much about advertising and won’t shut up about it. Wednesdays and Fridays.