Fast food and mascots go hand-in-hand, like ketchup and mustard or burgers and buns. But every once and awhile, companies miss the mark and come up with some disturbing abomination of a character. Some of these mascots are more likely to fuel nightmares than help get customers hungry. There have been some well known mascots that were just too weird to last, like Domino’s Noid or Quiznos’ Spongmonkeys. Perhaps the most disturbing mascot was for the now-defunct regional fast food chain called the Doggie Diner.
Its mascot was a 10-foot-high disembodied dog head, specifically a dachshund, with bug eyes, baggy skin, and a creepy smile. Some versions of it had a purplish red coloring that made the canine look as if it was hyperventilating. Even the whimsical puffy chef’s hat and bow tie couldn’t offset the ghastliness of its visage. The Doggie Diner and its disturbing dachshund were born in 1948 in Oakland. The chain specialized in — no surprise — hot dogs. Although the business went belly up in 1986, the mascot is still around the Bay area and has become something of an icon.
The Doggie Diner dogs have survived road trips and arson
Al Ross, former boxer from the Bronx, founded the Doggie Diner after moving to California. He started in the ice cream business but hit it big with hot dogs, hobnobbed with the likes of singer Frank Sinatra, and opened Doggie Diners throughout the Bay Area. Ross had a giant dog head made for each of his restaurants. He had 30 locations by the time he sold the business and retired. Without Ross at the helm, the Doggie Diner chain died out. But its homely mascot lived on. San Francisco designated the last standing dog head near Ocean Beach a city landmark in 2006.
There are others who have continued to carry a torch for the mascot. John Law, an artist and co-founder of Burning Man, the annual celebration of weirdness in the Nevada desert, saved and restored three of the heads. He’s put them on display around the Bay Area and once took them on a road trip to New York City. Then, while showing them in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, an arsonist set one alight. Law was able to save it. Kip Atchley has gone even further in the service of the dachshund. After buying and restoring one of the heads, he attempted for years to resurrect the restaurant but didn’t achieve it. Still, the Doggie Diner dachshund is around more than 70 years since its inception, outdoing Taco Bell’s infamous chihuahua mascot, which only lasted from 1997 to 2000.
