It is no hidden fact that people love animals, in our homes, out in the wild and even in our media. On our televisions everyday we will see images of animals in adverts and television shows. The Internet is a torrent of amusing or adorable videos of animals doing cute and crazy things. These videos are watched over and over such as “Best Funny Animals Compilation” which has been viewed over twenty two million times. Why do these animals that we are so familiar with entice us so much?

Feline Favourites

On the other paw Coca Cola have very recently put out a new ad asking the question “What would life be like if it tasted as good as Diet Coke?” The ad features the pop star Taylor Swift playing with an extremely cute kitten in her lounge whilst drinking a diet coke. Every time she takes a sip more and more kittens appear until the room is filled with the furry felines and all can be seen of Taylor Swift is an outstretched arm brandishing an empty coke bottle. Within just a couple of days of being online the video had surpassed half a million views on YouTube. Coca Cola have recognised peoples’ infatuation with kittens and acted on it creating an advert that centres around them and how cute they are. That is all there is to this advert and its simplicity works, shown in the viewing figures.

A Dog’s Life

Clearly people have an affinity for cats and dogs, but why are they really so appealing on our screens and why do advertisers keep using them? In 2010 Sykes the Dog played the role of Harvey in the television ad “Every Home Needs A Harvey”. The advert featured Harvey showcasing his talents of ironing, mowing the lawn and chess, to name a few, to impress prospective adopters in an animal shelter. The advert has been viewed on YouTube over one and a half million times and was named “Advert of the Year” by ITV in 2010. The saying goes that a dog is a mans’ best friend and this ad takes that saying to the next level, and with a ridiculous ten thousand friends on a social networking site; Harvey is every dog owner’s pooch of their dreams.

Other Animals

One of the first adverts that jumps to my head when thinking about ads with animals would be Cadbury’s “Gorilla” advert made in 2007. The ad featured an actor in an extremely realistic looking gorilla suit play the drum section to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”. The ad has had over seven million views on YouTube.

People Love Different

Another extremely memorable advert featuring a creature of the feline variety is the O2 ad from 2013 “Be More Dog”. The advert features a cat speaking of how he used to act like a cat doing mundane cat activities until he decided to change his ways and be more dog. Soon the cat plays fetch, tears up newspapers and acts like a dog. Now people are still unsure to this day what the term “be more dog” means but its stuck in peoples’ heads. The ad has had a whopping three and a half million views on YouTube cementing the fact that people want to watch this ad for the sole fact that it is entertaining. It had literally nothing whatsoever to do with mobile phones or O2 but is still to date their most popular advert. The makers of the ad recognized the fact that people have an affinity for the way a cat looks, but think that they can tend to be aloof and unloving. As a result of this a cat was created with the likeability and personality of mans’ best friend. People love seeing the out of the ordinary, which is what made this ad such a success.

So be it a bunch of kittens, a house handy dog or a drumstick brandishing ape, it’s safe to say people love seeing animals in the media.

Please note we did not produce the above adverts – but they are smashing examples of how brands utilise animals!