Tofu Chan

"**Tofu Pudding Jones**", known professionally as "**Tofu Chan**" and "**Tofupupper**", is a dog internet personality/content creator, musician, and self-proclaimed bread advocate from Australia. He achieved massive popularity in 2018 after the creation of his YouTube account and exposure of his Instagram account, where he gained many fans due to his comedic and motivational content and his voice actor Tomoya Kawasaki.

## Early life

Tofu was born on June 27th, 2016, in Melbourne, Australia. Tofu was adopted by Dylan Jones shortly after, who dreamed of having a shiba inu since he was a child living in Japan. Subsequently, Dylan later made an Instagram account for Tofu, where he uploaded pictures and videos of him. Tofu gained a small following through this, giving out small stickers to anyone who met Tofu.

## Career

Tofu's career began in 2018 after becoming increasingly more well-known. He began creating comedic and motivational Instagram videos, being voiced by Tomoya Kawasaki and directed & filmed by Josef Gatti. Tofu celebrated 10k Instagram followers on April 19th, 2018, continuing to create more videos and small promotional campaigns for some products. Tofu appeared in a commercial for Australian pet food company Petzyo the same year. In September 2018, Tofu's video Call 1800 Tobë ( Bread Ad ) began being shared as an internet meme. Tofu continued to make videos, beginning to upload his videos onto YouTube, starting with It's ok to be yourself on October 18th, 2018. Tofu also began creating satrical music throughout 2018 and 2019, where he would sing his versions of various songs. Tofu later gave the music videos the name "Tofu Sings." In August 2019, Tofu collaborated with Australian chocolate bar company Hey Tiger on a chocolate bar called "Tofu's Dream". The product was a smashing success, with the first batch selling out in 18 hours and the second batch also selling out quickly. In 2019, Tofu began his longest-running series, "Motivation Time w/ Tofu," where he would motivate the viewer in various ways. Tofu released a website named Onemillionpats.com in 2019 that served as a link tree to his social accounts and merch pages.

In early 2020, Tofu began another series called "Wide Questions," where he would answer questions from his fans. Also in 2020, Tofu's videos caught the attention of internet personality Wilbur Soot through videos submitted by his fans, giving Tofu a boost in popularity. The two also later collaborated together in March 2020. A character called Tobcuter, Tofu's personal computer that Tomoya also voices was also introduced. Tofu later created a TikTok in mid-2020 and collaborated with many content creators and businesses. Tofu Chan also made three songs (Real Love, Tofu Sings - Take Me Home Crunchy Roll, and Tofu chan - lofi hip hop - hop to it - beats to relax/study to) that were later distributed via Spotify and Apple Music.

At the end of 2020, Tofu released a vinyl figure via Youtooz, which sold out on August 19th, 2021. Tofu continued making small promotional videos for companies until September 2021, when Tofu began his most significant creative endeavor; a plush toy campaign called "My Very Own Tofu Chan" that was funded via Kickstarter. The campaign was a huge success, raising over $100,000 by the end of the campaign. Tofu's team send out the rewards for Kickstarter backers between February-April 2022. However, when the campaign was over, Tofu went relatively quiet on social media, though he continued posting Instagram stories. Tofu returned around July 2022, continuing to tease a figurine he had previously posted on his Instagram story. It was later revealed to be another Youtooz vinyl figure, posting the image via Instagram. The figurine was released on August 16th, 2022.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/BL4sm5wgK6i/
2. ↑ https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2019/09/06/tofu-chan-insta-famous-dog-his-own-chocolate-bar
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4ZP3IfLXJso