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Cool Spot (or simply Spot) was a mascot for 7 Up in the United States. He is an anthropomorphic version of the red dot in the 7 Up logo. He first appeared in 1987, the same year Fido Dido was licensed to PepsiCo. He starred in several advergames in the 1990s, as well as his own 7 Up adverts on television. Fido Dido advertised 7 Up outside the US at the time.
Cool Spot voice by Frank Welker.
He didn’t talk, but he did communicate through high-pitched noises as 7 Up marketed itself as “The Uncola”. As far as the video games during the 90s, there was Cool Spot, which was released in 1993-94 for the Sega Genesis, SNES, Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, Amiga and MS-DOS.
Appearance[]
Cool Spot is an anthropomorphic red dot with skinny arms and legs with full-sized hands and feet. He wears white gloves on his hands and white shoes with a red dot on either side. He also wears narrow black sunglasses. He is flat and two-dimensional.
Advertising[]
Spot appeared in TV adverts for 7 Up in the early 1990s, where the dot from the 7 Up logo would come to life in the form of Spot. Like Fido Dido, Spot was non-verbal, but he could communicate through high-pitched noises. Some adverts would show more than one Spot, which would all look identical. 7 Up still marketed itself as "The Uncola" during this time, a slogan from its previous advertising campaign. Some adverts had "The Cool Spot" as a slogan, referencing the name of the mascot.
Advergames[]
Spot was notorious for starring in several advergames in the 1990s, all of which were developed by Virgin Interactive.
Cool Spot[]
Perhaps the most notorious and memorable Spot video game was Cool Spot, released in 1993-1994 for the Sega Genesis, SNES, Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, Amiga and MS-DOS. It is a single-player platformer in which Spot can run, jump and attack by shooting bubbles in any direction. Spot has to rescue other spots (which look identical to him) from their cages. In order to do so, the player is required to collect a certain number of spots that changes (usually increases) as the game progresses. In the PAL version, the label from the 7 Up bottle Spot surfs on in the intro is removed, since Fido Dido was already advertising 7 Up in that region.
Spot: The Cool Adventure[]
Not to be confused with Cool Spot (see above), it is a Game Boy port of the McDonald's NES advergame M.C. Kids. McDonaldland, the Game Boy version of M.C. Kids, was released outside of Europe as Spot: The Cool Adventure, re-themed with Spot. Although the game structure is based on M.C. Kids, the map screen closely resembles Super Mario Bros. 3.
Spot: The Video Game[]
This was the first of Spot's advergames. The gameplay is similar to the board game Reversi and the video game Ataxx. Initially, the Amiga and Atari ST versions of the game were known as Infection, and were due to be released as budget titles. When the license was added, the price increased, however the non-branded Infection version of the game was released by developer Gary Dunne as freeware in 1994. The NES version allowed up to four players, each designated by a specific color. Players would hand off controllers so all members could make their moves when their turn arose.
Spot Goes to Hollywood[]
The last Spot advergame is a psuedo-3D platformer and the sequel to Cool Spot. In the game, Spot has become trapped in a movie projector. As he jumps from film to film, trying to free his friends, he encounters many classic film genres; these make up the levels of the game. There are many bonus films to unlock. The game was released for Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn and Playstation in 1995-1997. Sega 32X and SNES versions were also in development but got canceled before release.
1983 British precursor[]
In "Cool Town", a British 7 Up advert from 1983, an anthropomorphic red dot is seen. This dot does have arms and legs, but lacks facial features and appears more three-dimensional than Spot. Like Spot himself, it can transform from the red dot in the 7 Up logo.
