{"id":59317,"date":"2025-11-20T22:54:33","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=59317"},"modified":"2025-11-20T22:54:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T03:54:37","slug":"the-story-of-plato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/11\/20\/the-story-of-plato\/","title":{"rendered":"The story of Plato"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Since 1991, Plato the Publixaurus has been Publix’s mascot.\u00a0\u00a0

The company wanted to create a mascot that would appeal to children, so Publix artist Warren Dossey was asked to sketch two characters \u2014 a farmer and a dinosaur. Ultimately, the dinosaur was selected to represent education, nutrition, and environmental awareness.\u00a0

\u201cWe thought he needed a real name rather than just Publixaurus. I named him Plato, and it seemed to work,\u201d Warren said.\u00a0

After Plato had a name, Publix\u2019s ad layout artist Stacy Smith took over.\u00a0\u00a0

\u201cOnce Warren did the illustration, it was easy to write about Plato. He has so much personality,\u201d she said.\u00a0
\u00a0
According to his backstory, Plato was a good little dinosaur who learned about nutrition and exercise. Other dinosaurs wouldn\u2019t listen to what he\u2019d learned, so he left his home to share his knowledge with Publix. He went to sleep one night and woke up in the 20th century. Construction workers building a new Publix store found him and introduced him to store associates. Publix was impressed with Plato\u2019s message, and they asked him to be their spokesdinosaur.\u00a0

Plato debuted at the 1991 grand opening of the company\u2019s first Georgia store in Savannah and has made thousands of appearances at store openings and other Publix and community events.\u00a0\u00a0

In 2016, Plato underwent a transformation that brought fresh, exciting energy to his character.\u00a0

\u201cWe dove into the world of animated characters to figure out how Plato should evolve,\u201d explained Warren. \u201cIt was all about bringing him into the present.\u201d\u00a0

Plato\u2019s redesigned look became lean, fit, and energetic. His colors turned more vibrant, reflecting his renewed vitality. He was also dressed to impress, sporting a white T-shirt with the Publix logo.\u00a0

The redesign wasn\u2019t just about his appearance \u2014 it aligned perfectly with Plato\u2019s backstory and mission. As the spokesdinosaur championing nutrition and fitness for kids, Plato needed to embody the healthy lifestyle he promoted. The new look proves that staying active and eating healthy can be just as fun as it is important.\u00a0

Today, Plato is doing just that as he continues to be a motivation and inspiration for health and wellness!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since 1991, Plato the Publixaurus has been Publix’s mascot.\u00a0\u00a0 The company wanted to create a mascot that would appeal to children, so Publix artist Warren Dossey was asked to sketch… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"9","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjVcLzExXC8wOF9wb3N0MV9oaXN0b3J5X3BsYXRvX2hlYWRlcl9pbWFnZTQuYXZpZiIsInR4dCI6IlRoZSBzdG9yeSBvZiBQbGF0byIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.KJh52P13Ivv4aHHKkzxfZ26vys9ABVLV1xwgrOaDpb0MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":59318,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/08_post1_history_plato_header_image4.avif","type":"image\/avif"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[12666],"class_list":["post-59317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-the-story-of-plato"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59320,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59317\/revisions\/59320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}