my 2009 tribute to that taco bell dog

At the end of each year, tributes are usually paid to the ones that passed away or the few who did something ground breaking. As always, there are many things to be remembered about 2009, but - understandably - I didn't want to go through all of it here... Now, I previously stated that I am not in particular a dog lover or anything, but there are a rare couple of times when I talk about dogs, cute ones that is. So at the very end of this year 2009, my tribute goes to Gidget, that tiny dog famous for appearing in all the Taco Bell commercials - yes, he's dead.

Gidget - think gadget - appeared a few times on IdilViceFashionRocks clothing (the pictured Taco Bell Sweater below unfortunately has long sold out and is indefinitely out of print) because I felt he rocked, in some ways... He was cute as heck wasn't he? Or she, excuse me.

...idilvice wearing the taco bell sweater with gidget as a mexican revolutionary in a beret...

...all these incredible photos are by carl posey...

Althought Gidget had a few stand-ins during his modeling years, we loved him because he was a Mexican revolutionary wearing a beret or a bandido wearing a sombrero. His advertising catch-phrase was "¡Yo quiero Taco Bell!" ("I want Taco Bell!" or "I love Taco Bell!")

Gidget grew popular, so much so that toy figures of the dog were produced, and "Yo quiero (X)" became a recognized piece of pop culture. The dog also started another catch phrase: "Drop the chalupa!" Wewh - I almost started eating that stuff after that, honestly.




This dog even had a noted crossover with my favorite monster in the 1998 Godzilla film! Anyway, not sure if Gidget ate that Taco Bell stuff herself but on or around July 21, 2009 he was euthanized after suffering a massive stroke. Oh... he was only 15 years old. But hey, we had him!





R.I.P. Gidget!