22 Forgotten Mascots from Fast Food’s Golden Age

Here’s a mascot who was its own character before a restaurant decided to use him for publicity. When Dennis the Menace (I’m talking about the blond US menace, not the black-haired UK one!) wasn’t bothering Mr. Wilson, he was enjoying a cone at DQ. He served as Dairy Queen’s mascot for several decades, but in the early 2000s, was retired.

Dennis, who never grew out of being a kid from the ’50s/’60s, could not relate to the Millennial and Gen-Z youth. Also, Dennis’s creator, Hank Ketcham, died in 2001, and that may have played a part in his eventual retirement. In 2004, Michael Keller, then-executive vice president of marketing, said Dennis was “Taking a nap.” Boy, that’s a long nap!