Red carpets. Paparazzi. Millions of fans. These things are usually attributed to celebrities, but in this case, these are characteristics of one very unique dog--Doug the Pug.
Doug the Pug is an Internet sensation with 1.9 million followers on Instagram, 106,000 followers on Twitter, and close to five million likes on Facebook. Never before has an entire nation been so captivated by a dog.
Doug’s owner, Leslie Mosier, wrote an article for The Huffington Post, in which she chronicles how Doug the Pug was created, saying how ever since she was a kid, she wanted a pug and wanted to name him Doug because the name was so fitting. She lived in Nashville and managed the social media accounts of many artists while living with her adorable pug. She began to post pictures of Doug on her own Instagram and saw that popular dog pages were sharing her pictures, and they receiving many positive comments about all of the outfits that she dressed Doug up in.
Soon, she created Doug his own Instagram page, where Leslie and her boyfriend would take Doug places or dress him up cutely and post the pictures and videos. They made Doug move to certain songs or would take pictures of him and post relatable captions, all the while charming America with the ugly beauty associated with pugs. Due to the popularity of the page and the amount of positivity received by fans, Leslie quit her job and became Doug’s full-time manager.
Doug’s popularity transcends social media as he has met dozens of celebrities ranging from Katy Perry to Ed Sheeran to Pentatonix and One Direction to Justin Bieber to even Beyoncé. These celebrities promote him as they post pictures with him, almost acting as endorsements as then their fans will go to Doug’s page.
Doug has also made it onto many red carpet events, such as the Country Music Awards (CMAs) and the Academy of Country Music Awards (ACMAs). There, he gets to meet even more celebrities and network his brand.
As pugs are gaining more popularity as a dog breed, more and more people are being attracted to the page. Pugs are known to be the cutest ugly breed of dogs, and Doug encompasses this quite well with his pouting and long faces offset by crazy outfits.
His relatable and witty posts are what attract his fans the most, whether it be pictures of him in bathrobes with the caption complaining about not sleeping enough or him eating tons of food and talking about how food is his life or dressing “basic” and saying he can’t wait for pumpkin spice latte season. He makes the life of a dog relatable to a human’s so even just one look at his page will make any person crack up.
Make sure to follow Doug at @itsdougthepug for a look at this up and coming celebrity.
