shots 159: Z is for Zebras & Other Animals

Noah stuffed his ark full of them, their fluffy facsimiles fill cots and Clinton Cards, while anthropomorphised versions ‘people’ our cartoons and books – there’s no denying the allure of animals. Selena Schleh takes a safari in adland to spot the coolest critters the creatives have cast

We’ve got a confession to make: we couldn’t find a zebra character iconic enough for this list, but since a) there wasn’t really another theme beginning with ‘z’ and b) we figured animals in ads are a surefire crowd-pleaser, we’ve opted for a large dollop of poetic licence.

Whether it’s the wild-eyed white chargers in Guinness’ Surfer that made you think twice about getting into the water, or the saccharine sweetness of Andrex’s Labrador puppy unravelling a roll of loo paper, animals in adverts have proved a winning formula since the very beginning.

From the 1950s to the early noughties, tea brand PG Tips dominated TV screens with its family of Cockney chimps, who supped tea, bantered around the table and occasionally dropped pianos on their hapless offspring (“You hum it, I’ll play it son!”) in a staggering 45-year-long campaign.

But in recent years, stringent ASA guidelines and growing animal rights awareness has forced brands to tread more carefully when it comes to using real-life animals, especially where man’s best friend is concerned. Just ask Volkswagen, whose 2008 spot for Polo, Confidence, attracted nearly 743 complaints for its cowering canine, despite the brand claiming the dog was simply a brilliant actor.

Unsurprisingly then, most brands have turned to CGI in recent years, with memorable results, from the humorous – Three’s moonwalking pony and Comparethemarket’s meerkats – to the heartbreakingly realistic orang-utang in PETA’s 98% Human. But it was confectionery brand McVitie’s that really took the, ahem, biscuit with a CGI creation: not content with fluffy puppies, kittens and rabbits, their 2014 Christmas campaign saw a baby narwhal surface in a bowl of festive punch. Try explaining that to the RSPCA…

Gorilla from Cadbury’s Dairy Milk: Gorilla

At the risk of mixing animal metaphors, we’d have loved to be a fly on the wall when Fallon first presented Gorilla to confectionery company Cadbury in 2007. An ad for a chocolate bar without a single shot of the product itself and 90 seconds of epic drumming to Phil Collins’ 1981 hit In The Air Tonight by a man in a monkey suit? On paper, it must have sounded utterly bananas. But for director Juan Cabral using an ape was a fairly logical proposition: “[The song] has a very powerful drum solo… so a gorilla has to play it.”

Thankfully, Cadbury took a gamble, Cabral went out and sourced a Hollywood-calibre gorilla suit (which had done duty in Gorillas In The Mist and Congo) and the world went ape for the result. As well as picking up practically every creative award going, sales of Dairy Milk went up by five per cent, proving that truly creative advertising can be incredibly effective, too.

Monty the penguin from John Lewis: Monty’s Christmas

adam&eveDDB’s festive commercials for British department store John Lewis are certified lump-in-the-throat generators that shamelessly leverage the appeal of cute critters, be that the snowbound dog in 2010’s A Tribute To Givers or the cartoon protagonists of 2013’s The Bear And The Hare. Last year’s offering, Monty’s Christmas, upped the emotional ante with the story of a little boy and his feathered friend Monty, a portly penguin who longs for love.

Although CCO Ben Priest initially worried that using a “fluffy penguin” was a mawkish step too far – “I thought it would be tugging at people’s heartstrings in a very obvious way,” he admitted in shots 158 – MPC’s digital wizardry really brought the character to life and earned a pat on the back from PETA, who praised the brand’s decision to use CG, thereby “sparing penguins the stress of being treated as living props”. The spot cost a reported £1m to make, but Monty and love interest Mabel proved a worthwhile investment, going on to star in a range of cuddly toys, a children’s book, a hit single and an audio app, as well as a host of hilarious parodies (the brilliant mash-up of horror flick The Babadook is well worth a watch).

The meerkats from Comparethemarket.com

Car insurance aggregator sites: not exactly a sector that screams creative opportunities. Kudos then to VCCP London, which captured the public’s imagination – and doubled the value of Comparethemarket.com’s business – when it made a meerkat the face of the brand. And not just any old meerkat, either, but the cravat-toting, aristocratic Russian, Aleksandr Orlov, who gets frustrated by people confusing his website – Comparethemeerkat.com – with Comparethemarket’s. The first UK advertising character to have his own Twitter account (and 67,000 followers), Aleksandr was swiftly joined by speccy sidekick Sergei and cute foundling Oleg. Four years on, Aleksandr’s catchphrase “Simples” has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary and the meerkats have been immortalised in a line of collectable cuddly toys, something VCCP’s ECD Darren Bailes had confidently predicted from the start: “I said in the original pitch that eventually we’d be making toys and they’d be going like hotcakes, but no one believed me.” Despite repeated threats to replace the critters, Aleksandr and crew are still going strong: a recent campaign to promote the launch of Meerkat Movies saw them pop up in Tinseltown to interview action film legend Arnie.

Frank the tortoise, Carol the cat and Pablo the parrot from The Electricity Board: Heat Electric

They first hit screens in the 1989 award-winning short Creature Comforts, but Aardman’s brilliant clay animations really entered the public consciousness – and went on to be voted the nation’s favourite animated ad characters – when agency GGK cast them in a series of spots for the UK electricity board’s Heat Electric campaign.

The campaign, which ran for three years, saw the animated clay critters being interviewed at home about their heating arrangements and electrical appliances, using extracts from real-life recordings. From the garrulous Liverpudlian cat Carol, to Pablo the parrot, a Brazilian émigré who was able to live in England thanks to central heating, the anthropomorphic cast was full of memorable characters. By far and away the best was Frank, a sweatband-toting, fitness fanatic tortoise, whose bobbing Adam’s apple frequently belied his on-camera nerves. Sadly, the mascots proved more memorable than the brand itself, with many people ultimately misattributing the ads to British Gas.

Singing rabbit from Skittles: Trade

Part of a Yellow Pencil-winning trio of ads from TBWAChiatDay, this brilliantly offbeat spot is a cautionary tale that nothing’s worth swapping your Skittles for, not even a rabbit that can sing a chorus from La Traviata. A teenager hands over his bag of sweets in return for a warbling white bunny, but the trade soon turns sour when it turns out Thumper’s repertoire is not only limited but delivered at an earsplitting volume. Incessantly. Cut to the Skittles recipient savouring his saccharine treats, while his friend stands outside in the rain, bitterly clutching his yodelling pet… which then bites him on the arm and scarpers. Yes, it lacks the cute factor of many of the creatures on this list (and brings back the Watership Down-inspired nightmares of childhood) but come on, it’s an opera-singing rabbit. That’s creative genius.