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In 1986, Frito-Lay replaced their Cheetos mouse mascot with Chester Cheetah, a sunglasses-wearing character who delivered catchphrases like "It ain't easy being cheesy."
Chester's appearance in TV commercials helped drive Cheetos sales from $200 million to $1.2 billion over the next decade.
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In 1985, Brad Morgan developed Chester Cheetah at the DDB Needham agency.
They directed the visual design, sketching Chester's orange fur, black spots, and signature sunglasses.
The agency even wrote the character's first TV scripts, crafting Chester's smooth-talking personality and "It ain't easy being cheesy" catchphrase.
An animator drew 24 distinct frames for each second of Chester's movement.
He detailed every whisker twitch and tail flick by hand, using colored pencils on animation cells.
From Chester's strutting walk to his finger-pointing gestures.
From 1986 to 1997, Chester Cheetah appeared in TV commercials saying "It's not easy being cheesy" and "The cheese that goes crunch!"
In 1997, Cheetos' marketing team replaced these slogans with "Dangerously cheesy!"
The new catchphrase aimed to make the snack seem bold rather than just fun.
Instead of a playful Chester stealing cheese or outsmarting others, commercials now showed him tempting people with Cheetos' intense cheese flavor.
From 1985 to 2003, Chester Cheetah burst onto TV screens chasing bags of Cheetos.
The animated mascot crashed through walls, tumbled down stairs, and slammed into doors—trying to snatch snacks from unsuspecting eaters.
His orange fur bristled with desperation as he schemed and failed, again and again.
Chester's wild pursuits mirrored Warner Bros.' classic cartoons. Like Wile E. Coyote hunting the Road Runner, Chester deployed elaborate traps that backfired.
When he shot himself from cannons or bounced off trampolines, viewers saw echoes of Daffy Duck's explosive mishaps.
The cheese-dusted snack became his golden carrot—always just out of reach.
In 1992, Frito-Lay developed a TV show starring their Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah.
The company wrote scripts, created storyboards, and planned to air "Yo! It's the Chester Cheetah Show!" on Saturday mornings.
Action for Children's Television blocked the show's release.
The advocacy group argued that a 30-minute TV program starring an advertising mascot would blur the line between entertainment and commercials.
They sent formal complaints to the FCC and organized parents to write protest letters.
Facing this pressure, TV networks dropped the show before it aired.
In 1997, Cheetos transformed Chester Cheetah from a suave salesman into a mischievous risk-taker.
The brand replaced his smooth-talking pitch with the sharp, direct slogan "Dangerously cheesy!"
Voice actor Pete Stacker gave Chester a bolder, more energetic voice that matched his new rebellious spirit.
In 2003, Frito-Lay replaced Chester Cheetah's hand-drawn form with computer graphics in US advertisements.
The new Chester displayed crisp orange fur, sharp whiskers, and fluid digital movements that matched the era's polished TV commercials.
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Cheetos released two video games starring Chester Cheetah for the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo in 1992 and 1993.
The first game, "Too Cool to Fool," let players jump and dash through obstacle courses filled with platforms and enemies.
In "Wild Wild Quest," players guided Chester through Western-themed levels, collecting Cheetos bags while avoiding cacti and rattlesnakes.
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