thumb|right|[[Cosplay of Chester Cheetah]]
Chester Cheetah is a fictional character and the official mascot for Frito-Lay's Cheetos brand snacks as well as Chester's Snacks which consists of flavored fries, popcorn and puffcorn.
History
1986–2003: Traditional animation
Cheetos' original mascot was the Cheetos Mouse, who debuted in 1971 and disappeared around 1979. In 1986 Chester Cheetah was created by Brad Morgan, who art directed the commercials and designed the character, and Stephen Kane who wrote the original scripts for television commercials. The original 24-frame animation was done by Richard Williams. After Chester's introduction, the sly, smooth voiced cheetah began starring in more commercials and eventually became Cheetos' official mascot. He used the slogans "It's not easy being cheesy" and "The cheese that goes crunch!" from 1986 to 1997, until it became "Dangerously cheesy!" from 1997 onward.
From the mid-1980s to the early 2000s, television adverts often featured Chester's desperate attempts to eat other people's Cheetos. The self-described "hip kitty" would often speak in rhyme and sneak up on an unsuspecting stranger at a beach or public park. The result would always involve cartoon violence in the vein of Looney Tunes, such as Chester riding a motorcycle off a bridge, getting thrown to the top of a coliseum, or plunging miles through the air to unwittingly grab a hang-gliding bodacious babe, only to cast her aside in favor of Cheetos. These spots were first directed by Keith Van Allen and later by Cow and Chicken creator David Feiss.
In 1992, Chester's own television program called Yo! It's the Chester Cheetah Show! was under development for the Fox Kids Saturday morning fall lineup. However, an ethics debate erupted over Chester's status as an advertising character, and likely due to the protests of Action for Children's Television, the show was prevented from airing. Their petition marked the first time that the organization protested something before it actually became a program.
Chester's character underwent slight revamping in 1997. With the introduction of the "Dangerously cheesy!" slogan and Pete Stacker replacing Joel Murray as his voice actor. Chester began appearing in live-action/animated hybrid advertisements where he entered the real world. During this time, the ads began portraying him in a less antagonistic manner; he went from being bumbling to suave, and unlike in the older commercials, he actually managed to eat Cheetos.
2003–2009: Jump to CGI
In the United States in 2003, Chester was rendered as a computer generated character, but he continued to appear in his old animation style in other countries.
In one specific 2006 commercial series, Chester emerged victorious over competitor Chef Pierre in a baking competition to develop Baked Cheetos. This resulted in an advertising campaign called Chester Goes Undercover, wherein Pierre steals the Baked Cheetos formula while wearing a shadow, and Chester pursues him by tracking down hints that point him in the direction of Pierre's goons, Twisty McGee, Flamin' Hot Fiona, and The Cruncher. When Chester confronted Chef Pierre, he gave the order for his operatives to show up, capture Pierre and his henchmen, and retrieve the stolen formula. There was an interactive web campaign associated with these commercials.
2008–present: OrangeUnderground redesign
By 2008, Cheetos took aim at an adult demographic with a series of ads featuring the mascot in promotion of OrangeUnderground.com. In this incarnation, Chester (originally a puppet) is computer generated, but now with photorealistic textures/detail; he speaks with a British-sounding Mid-Atlantic accent and encourages people to use their Cheetos in acts of revenge or to solve problems (e.g. plug the nostrils of a snoring man or dirty the cubicle of a neat freak), sometimes referring to himself as "Papa Chester". In this incarnation, Chester is voiced by Adam Leadbeater.
Merchandise
Chester starred in two video games produced by Kaneko for the Sega Genesis and Super NES: Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool in 1992 and Chester Cheetah: Wild Wild Quest in 1993.
Chester Cheetah makes a cameo appearance in Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog series.
The Angry Birds Cheetos and Angry Birds Cheetos 2 Facebook games were released in 2012 and 2013. With the exception of the addition of a new Cheetos bag power up in both games, the games are quite identical to past Angry Birds versions. A normal Cheetos bag that behaves like the Blue bird and splits into many Cheetos is added in the first game, and a flaming hot Cheetos bag that behaves like the Bomb bird and explodes on impact is added in the sequel.
A promotional plush doll was produced, featuring dark sunglasses and lace-up shoes. It was 18" tall. A 10" doll is still available today.
In 2023, the company Jada Toys released an action figure of Chester Cheetah.
Video games
Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool
Chester Cheetah: Too Cool to Fool is a 1992 video game that starred Cheetos mascot Chester Cheetah, only released in North America.
The game is composed of simple side-scrolling platform levels. On each level there is a hidden "scooter" part. In game, Chester can dash and stun enemies by jumping on their heads.
The instruction manual contains a popular Engrish recognized by many gamers: "As is Chester Cheetah way, is one-person play." The Engrish spawned due to bad translations and an attempt to rhyme in anapestic tetrameter like Dr. Seuss. No actual mention of the Cheetos snack food is made in the game, but Chester's health points are represented as Cheetos Paws.
Time Extension listed Too Cool to Fool as one of the worst SNES games.