Toby Sells
The new Pancho Man mingles with the old Pancho Man on the shelves at Midtown Kroger.
Pancho’s quietly rolled out its new Pancho Man recently, a decidedly less cartoon-y version of the Pancho Man who has been the face of the beloved cheese dip since 1956.
Pancho’s announced a change to the logo last month with a cryptic tweet, reading “get ready to meet the new Pancho.” An image of the new logo accompanied the tweet with only a silhouette where the new Pancho would reside.
Toby Sells
The new Pancho’s man.
The old Pancho is a smiling, mustachioed, and sombrero-ed cartoon. The new Pancho is a smiling, mustachioed, and sombrero-ed cartoon, too. Or, maybe you could call him a drawing? But he’s decidedly less cartoon-y than the old Pancho, whose years of service on the lid of the city’s favorite cheese dip made him an easily recognizable Memphis icon.
Toby Sells
Ben Fant, principal and creative director at the Farmhouse marketing firm, has stayed fresh on the Pancho-Man beat. I’ll give him a huge, digital hat tip here for finding the new Pancho in the wild first (to my knowledge) and posting him to Facebook (which is where I saw it first).
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As of Friday morning, neither Pancho’s Cheese Dips nor Pancho’s restaurant had formally introduced the new Pancho online. But the company has been clear on any reference to the new Pancho — the cheese dip recipe will remain unchanged.
Last month, Rafael Rangel asked Pancho’s on Twitter why the company wanted to change the logo. “Why mess with something so perfect?” he asked.
“We just want to make sure our logo looks as great as the dip tastes!” the company responded. “New look, but always same taste!”
Toby Sells
There’s a new logo in town, amigo.
