Community Corner

WeatherTech Mascot, Super Bowl Ad Dog 'Scout' Dies

After several years fighting cancer and featuring in Super Bowl commercials, WeatherTech Mascot Dog, Scout, has died at age 7.

Scout died from cancer earlier this week.
Scout died from cancer earlier this week. (Photo owned by Ashley Voss / @wtscout / University of Wisconsin-Madison)

BOLINGBROOK, IL — Scout, a golden retriever of recent Super Bowl commercial fame and the unofficial mascot of auto accessory company WeatherTech, passed away earlier this week. Scout suffered from cancer from several years, and despite the efforts of veterinary doctors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, finally succumbed to the disease at the age of 7.

"In the last couple of weeks the cancer tumors started to bleed around his heart and around his lungs. The doctors were able to stop the bleeding for a while, but his body became anemic and weak," the announcement of Scout's death read on his official Instagram page. "Scout was fighting hard and he bravely tried his best to stay strong, but it became clear his quality of life had seriously declined."

Scout featured in several Super Bowl ads for WeatherTech over the course of his life, and most recently starred in a $6 million commercial for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's veterinary medicine program. The ad was financed by WeatherTech CEO David MacNeil, who told Patch in January that it was both his way of thanking the university's veterinarians for their work in keeping Scout alive, and a vehicle to spread canine cancer awareness.

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"This gives us a platform to let the whole world know... that cancer in canines is a serious issue. There are people out there that don't even know dogs get cancer," MacNeil said in January.

At the time, university staff told Path that MacNeil had also made a large lump sum donation to the veterinary school, in addition to the Super Bowl ad he financed on their behalf. MacNeil said he hoped research into canine cancer would end up benefiting human cancer research, but declined to comment on whether he would make an additional donation to the University of Wisconsin-Madison's (human) Medical Center, which conducts research on cancer.

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Patch reached out to WeatherTech officials for additional comment on Scout's passing, but did not immediately receive a response.

"Scout will live on in all the people he met including his amazing Doctors at the University of Wisconsin Veterinary School who valiantly tried to save him," Scout's Instagram eulogy read. "Scout’s legacy will live on by the lives he touched with his enormous spirit and by bringing international attention to canine cancer and his own personal fight against hemangiosarcoma cancer."


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