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Tio Pepe sign revived after Apple tussle
Tio Pepe Sherry’s famous sombrero wearing, guitar-wielding mascot has returned to the Puerta de Sol in Madrid after a three-year battle with electronics giant Apple.
As reported by Spanish newspaper El País, the neon sign was reinstated on the roof of building number 11 in the renowned Madrid square yesterday, 130 metres away from its original home.
The sign was taken down in 2011 after Apple opened a flagship store in the building that housed the sign on its roof.
However, over 28,000 people signed an online petition addressed to Apple’s directors, Madrid city hall and Tio Pepe makers González Byass to revive the sign that has lit up the Puerta de Sol since the 1930s.
The petition described the Tio Pepe sign as “part of the Madrid landscape”.
El País reports that the new Tio Pepe sign is “younger, thinner and better looking” than the original after the mascot was made over last November.
“The sign has formed part of the physiognomy of the square for many years,” Ignacio González, president of the Community of Madrid, told El País.