Let’s face it. No one can resist a snuggly teddy bear who sells laundry detergent, or the puppy who frolics through the living room (causing his owner to spray the room with air deodorizer). No matter what the product, animals are perceived as adorable, cuddly, and friendly. Their innocence often invokes a feeling of empathy and safety. They seem to say “You can TRUST me, I’m a lizard! Why would I lie?!”
Spokes-characters in advertisement have been around for decades. We know ads are created to persuade people to buy something such as cars, food, clothes, and/or to change their behavior to choose a different product, stop smoking etc. But newer advertisements, particularly those for television, are creating animal ‘personalities’ that use humor to sell goods outside the realm of pet products. The newest wave of advertisement has given way to the ‘spokes-creature’. Spokes-creatures are typically used to promote a product that it would normally be an unlikely candidate for transformational advertising. For example, the association of a tiger - representing speed and power - with a breakfast cereal transforms the meaning of the product from simply eating breakfast to attaining speed and power.
Sometimes, using an unlikely spokes-person can have an adverse effect. It’s a fine line between unlikely and annoying. There’s something unnerving about a huge corporation that uses animals or children to talk to its prospective consumers. One of those campaigns I absolutely loathe is for Welch’s Grape Juice, you know the child ads where the little kids tell you why you suck if you don’t drink their special juice? (I think the kids are creepy and if anything it makes me never want to drink grape juice again). Just like animals, children are also used in advertisements to prompt a feeling or concept. It can be argued that children also represent purity and innocence. In this case, the commercials made me react in an opposite way. They represent chaos, annoyance, and people who are too young to be making my decisions for me about what to drink with my lunch. It also made me very aware that Welch’s was trying to use these children as “spokes creatures,” by making them read a teleprompter and speak to an audience of consumers like they’re grown-ups.
However, here is an example of some “spokes creatures” I find absolutely endearing. I’m warning you, this commercial spot is so sweet you may get a cavity just from watching it:
New York Lottery Sweet Million "Bunnies"
Pet food commercials are obviously not grouped into the transformational advertising marketing category because they are representing themselves as the consumers. Here is my personal favorite recent pet food commercial spot. It uses the phantom camera, shot at 1,000 fps, in my opinion it promotes animal agility and the dogs just look down right happy to be there!
Pedigree Dogs ad shot 1000 FPS using the Phantom camera
And then, there are times when maybe the agency should consider an entirely new campaign? There is a fine line between making a commercial memorable, and making a commercial that is both annoying and offensive to humans and animals alike. But at least they used puppets. Puppets are awesome!
Screaming Chickens Warning 1/3 Denny's Super Bowl 44 Commercial Free Breakfast
Britt Coleman