Talk about second lives. The fuzzy wiseacre formerly known as the Pets.com sock puppet has enjoyed a long and illustrious career as the pitchman for car financing firm 1-800BarNone … longer than his namesake gig. A true cultural icon, replicas of the adorable pooch still command respectable sums in eBay auctions. All that VC money spent on establishing the brand did not go to waste.

AdWeek named the “Has Been” car financing commercial as one of the best spots of 2002 … and here it is, almost five years later and the canine is still going strong.

“I used to be top dog, then poof!” says the Sock Puppet, newly risen from the dot-com graveyard. “Fortunately, I heard about 1-800BarNone. They gave me a second chance. If you need car financing, been divorced or have no credit at all, you deserve a second chance, too.”

Tags: car financing