How chubby penguins ended up on the Las Vegas sphere after Dogwifhat couldn’t

Pudgy Penguins will next pack the Las Vegas Sphere for Christmas debuts at the radiant location on Tuesday.

The crypto-native brand’s recent announcement left some traders in crisis, as the community behind the Solana meme coin Dogwifhat (WIF) failed to advertise on the site earlier this year despite raising $700,000 in an effort to do so – funds the team refunded later to contributors.

A spokesperson for Sphere told earlier Declutter that it would only accept crypto advertisements from exchanges or in relation to Bitcoin. Despite this, the Dogwifhat support announced in January that they would appear at the Las Vegas location.

For that reason, a Sphere representative said Declutter that they were “saddened” that the Dogwifhat team was using their name for “fraudulent purposes.”

So how did Pudgy Penguins – a brand that started as an NFT profile photo collection, created a Solana meme coin called PENGU, help launch a Ethereum layer 2 network and more: advertising on the Sphere?

“This activation specifically celebrates our physical products, such as toys, animations and merchandise. It has nothing to do with the crypto side of our business,” Vedant Mangaldas, director of partnerships and business development at Pudgy Penguins, told me. Declutter. “We fully realize Sphere’s guidelines on crypto-related matters.”

Ahead of Tuesday’s rollout, a Sphere spokesperson confirmed this Declutter that Pudgy Penguins would be packing the Sphere, and that the crypto policy has not changed as this activation relates specifically to physical products.

This means that during the seven-day wrap, the Pudgy Penguins NFTs, the Pengu meme coin, or other crypto-related ventures will not be listed on the Sphere. Instead, the exosphere animation focuses on the cartoon creatures that power the brand, and briefly mentions merchandise availability.

Pudgy Penguins ventured into the world of physical products in 2023 and began being stocked in Walmart. The Pudgy Toys line existed from February 2024 achieved a turnover of 10 million dollarsless than a year after the collection debuted. The brand has seen similar success with its social media content and library of GIFs, which have seen significant reach without apparent crypto connections.

“We have 2 million followers on Instagram, and I would say 90% of them probably don’t know crypto exists. It celebrates that side of the spectrum,” Mangaldas explains. “If you get a billion views on GIFs, I’m guessing the majority of them don’t know we’re a crypto company. And I think that’s the beauty of Pudgy Penguins.”

Yet despite everything, packing the Sphere was not an easy path a joke on social media with Dogwifhat Sphere organizer Ansem that it only took three minutes to set up.

Instead, a source familiar with the deal said Declutter that talks with the Sphere started in early 2024. Those discussions started to get serious this year as the Pudgy Penguins brand established itself more outside of crypto.

It then took months for animators to create the content, which is now plastered throughout the exosphere of the towering location and viewable from anywhere in Las Vegas. This is according to a source familiar with the activation Declutter that Pudgy Penguins hopes to create a huge viral moment from an animation that lasts just a minute.

Pudgy Penguins is expected to have paid up to $600,000 to wrap the Sphere for seven days, a source familiar with the matter said. Declutter. Just as cartoon penguins decorate the outside of the Sphere, so does the inside of the venue host screenings of “The Wizard of Oz.”