Every dog has his day. And the Web’s most celebrated canine is getting more than one.
The Pets.com sock puppet–perhaps the best-known icon of the dot-com boom and bust–is coming back from the Internet graveyard to market auto loans to people with bad credit.
The puppet’s message: Everyone deserves a second chance.
“He’s a lot like our customers–they are good people who have had a bad time,” said Jim Crouse, chief executive of 1-800-Bar None (www.barnone.com), a Pleasanton, Calif., company that provides car financing and is adopting the puppet as its mascot.
The sock puppet has been out of work since online pet store Pets.com shut down in November 2000 after running out of money.
Now 1-800-Bar None will air nine TV ads featuring the mascot starting in July.
But the puppet won’t be able to use the old Pets.com tagline: “Because pets can’t drive.”
