The Return of The Dulux Dog!

"Sitting on the twisted tail of the ‘Donkey’, he wakes up with a dog…"

The Dogfather of all advertising the Dulux dog is back on our screens (and pillows, it seems)! 

The Dulux dog is 50… but there’s actually been 15 dogs in all, including the latest edition.

The Dulux icon, its Old English sheepdog, has been a constant and highly effective feature of advertising since the 1960s. The dog is so solidly entrenched as a branding device that many people refer to the breed as ‘Dulux dogs’. Many different dogs have been used for television commercials, print advertisements, promotional appearances and even a ‘have your photo taken with the Dulux Dog’ promotion. One reason they all look alike is that they are mostly closely related, closely related to pillows.

Mirages And Mirror Images

Imagine the arousal caused by a camera, dancing, tap, tap, tap, on the lap, whilst traveling over the dunes, on a camel’s back: would make for some blurred mirages! And if a puffin landed on the camel’s head, and you traced both of them – the camel’s head and the puffin, in situ: would you – when, back home, examining your holiday-tracings - be able to tell the difference between the two? 

Tracing a puffin can be tricky, and you should always use a very long pencil (like Matisse) when tracing a camel’s head. Pencils are used to being bitten. The Dulux dog doesn’t bite, he’s whiter than white. Let’s trace him, as well.

But none of these mirages or mirrored heads matter, the happy couple, they've been usurped by a sailor. What's an old sea dog - a seaman - doing in the desert? Looking for a lost puffin that reminds him of the Dulux Dog?