Chick-Fil-A's Mascot Evolution From The 1970s To Now

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Chick-fil-A is known for many things, like being the fast food chain with the best service, being one of the higher-ranked fried chicken chains, and being the fast food chain you're most likely to find in U.S. airports. The company has also operated a famous marketing campaign for many years featuring cows urging consumers to eat chicken instead of beef.

But those Chick-fil-A cows weren't the chain's original mascots. From the 1970s to the 1990s, a chicken named Doodles was the official spokes-bird for Chick-fil-A. White with a red comb — that's the fleshy growth atop a chicken's head — Doodles resembled a white leghorn. While the bird underwent a few makeovers during his years repping Chick-fil-A, that basic white-and-red appearance remained the same.

Food Republic spoke to a representative for Chick-fil-A who said, "Doodles officially 'retired' as the Chick-fil-A mascot in 1998. And, while Doodles is no longer the official Chick-fil-A mascot, he is still a beloved part of the brand's heritage." In 2026, Chick-fil-A rolled out collectible beverage cups with vintage designs as part of its "Newstalgia" campaign, the first of which featured Doodles. The bird's likeness can also be seen in the chicken graphic that's incorporated into the letter "C" on the company's logo.

The Chick-fil-A cows made their debut in 1995, beginning with a billboard in Atlanta, Georgia, which featured two cows graffitiing the phrase "Eat More Chikin" on a blank sign (well, blank aside from the Chick-fil-A logo beneath their message). Thus, one of Chick-fil-A's most famous ad campaigns was born.

In 1972, five years after the very first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in Atlanta, Georgia, the restaurant launched a "Name the Chicken" contest among its employees. A chicken costume was purchased to be worn during events, and the name "Doodles" was officially chosen from among the contest entries, marking the creation of Chick-fil-A's first official mascot.

In 1980, Doodles the chicken got his first makeover, which didn't include '80s-era fashion staples like parachute pants, shoulder pads, or leg warmers but did include a smart new apron with his name on it, as well as a red-checkered neckerchief. The mascot's official description, per Chick-fil-A, was "tall, friendly, furry, and frolicsome."

With a new decade came another new look for Doodles, and in the mid-1990s, the mascot got some new threads in the form of a red and yellow jersey branded with his name. This was in style, keeping with a fashion craze of the time, which was wearing sports jerseys as everyday attire.

In 1995, some new kids on the block moved into the Chick-fil-A mascot neighborhood, as the famous black-and-white cows made their first appearance on that Atlanta billboard, with a cow holding a paintbrush standing on the back of its partner in crime. The cows and their message to "Eat Mor Chikin" (sometimes spelled "Chickin") quickly spread to radio and television over the next couple of years.

The now-famous Chick-fil-A cows made their first television appearance in 1997, and it wasn't cartoons or puppets, as one might have expected — these were real, live cows from a place called Phil's Animal Rentals in Piru, California. The talented bovines were trained to do tricks for the commercials, and a cow named Cat has appeared in the lion's share of Chick-fil-A ads over the years (along with a few other co-stars — or is it cow-stars? — that are also from Phil's Animal Rentals).

Also in 1997, the very first Chick-fil-A cow mascot costume was introduced. As Doodles the chicken had done in past years, costumed cow mascots began making appearances at Chick-fil-A restaurants and events, spreading their anti-beef, pro-poultry message.

In 1998, Chick-fil-A introduced the very first collectible plush version of its superstar cows. Many more cow plushies have been offered over the years, dressed in various forms of attire and costumes, from Santa suits and toy soldier outfits around the holidays to pajamas, a parachute, or jeans, a T-shirt, sneakers, and a ball cap.

Doodles the chicken received his official retirement as the Chick-fil-A mascot in 1998. Between 1998 and 1999, a company-wide transition was made to bring the new cow representatives into the spotlight as Chick-fil-A's official mascots.

The first Chick-fil-A TV commercial featuring the thespian cows had the animals acting like ... well ... cows, merely standing in a sunny field munching on grass (with the end of the commercial showing they had been chomping the words "Eat Mor Chikin" into the pasture). But, as the years went on and the cow ads evolved, the bovines began doing more and more "acting" — bopping to music from a boombox while strolling downtown, infiltrating a competitor's office building disguised as employees, and doing the wave at a sports game, which sometimes required the cows to wear human clothing during filming.

In 2022, Chick-fil-A took its famous cows virtual with animated versions of the animals, as well as GIFs that fans could download and use digitally. The new cartoon versions of the cows appeared in two short films, called "Code Moo" and "Tha Billbord," in 2023.