Huge, huge trend among the bored working-class. Here's the ad that first caught my eye and made me think "hmmm it's seeping into the ad brains":




This one is for Harvey Nichols, which is basically the Barneys of London. I actually really like this ad. It reminds me of this framed poster my mom put on my wall when I was little. It had lots of kittens dressed up in Victorian-era fashion. I used to stare transfixed at them. Someone told me years later that the only way they got those kittens to sit so still was to use DEAD KITTENS. So I felt a momentarily worried when I saw these and called up the photographer, London-based Tim Flach, who photographs animals almost primarily, to see if he was a kitten-murderer. It turns out that not only does he not murder kittens, but he is extremely thoughtful and clever.

Here is the ad team:

Art Director: David Mackerse


The concept was presented to Tim by DDB London. Basically the idea was to replicate a "catfight" (get it?); presumably, the cats are fighing over the clothes. Tim was really soft-spoken and sweet and when I demanded to know how he had contorted those cats, said things like: "you can't do a lot in terms of bribing them";"they don't have knees in the way that we have knees";"we had to lull them and tickle them to get them into kung fu poses."

The actual shoot took a few days. First they shot all the interiors, which were done after hours in the Harvey Nichols store. Then they shot the cats. They didn't do it all hodge-podge and fix it in post later, though; Tim is really big on getting the right series of poses at the time, and putting it together at the location. He was shooting with a Hasselblad H2 with a digital back, and looking at the images on a laptop as they processed. He'd have his assistant wear the actual outfit that the actual cat they were shooting was supposed to be wearing, so that it would feel "anthropomorphically believable" in the final shot.

And I think it does. And so did the Clio Awards.


NOW here's where the twist comes in. When I was researching another animal photographer, Jill Greenberg, I came across these:

OK, so holy cow, those look a lot like the Harvey Nichols ads. These are for Fresh Step. The campaign won a 2007 Effie Award. Here's how the ad team described their thinking:

"Our idea was to demonstrate that when you use Fresh Step, even cats can't smell their litter box. The Lost Litter Box idea was an unexpected way to emphasize the effectiveness of Fresh Step's odor-eliminating carbon. Campaign results more than doubled objectives, growing Fresh Step sales by 29% and category share by 18% in six months."

Now, these look a lot like the Harvey Nichols ads to me, but sort of less good. Not as cute, less realistic. Guess what? Also produced by DDB, but DDB San Francisco.

The team on this one:

Lisa Bennett, Chief Creative Officer
Perry Portugal, Creative Dir.
Kelly Colchin, Art Dir.
Brett Landry, Copywriter
Stacey Grier, Chief Strategy Officer
Dave Wolf, Copywriter
Dennis Mcvey, Art Dir.
Vicki Sanders, Group Acct. Dir.


Someone at DDB likes those cats! I called Jill Greenberg to get her take on the ad-making process, but I couldn't get past her studio manager. She stopped listening to me when I said blog, and got me off the phone as quickly as possible. So I don't have a comment from her for ya right now. I'll work on my credentials and get back to you.

Really, though, I am now seeing a lot of ads that look like this. And as demonstrated above, they seem to be hit-and-miss. I checked in with a few folks in the industry to get their take.


First, Xanthe Hohalek, an art director at TBWA\Chiat\Day Los Angeles:

Yes, I definitely see a trend with the use of animals. There are very easy

to personify and they have that magic element with clients that they're

"cute" and there's nothing you can poke holes in conceptually- There's

absolutely nothing controversial about a cat or a dog. They just are. To me,

it puts a fresh spin on any concept that could work just as well with

humans. We've all seen the anthem spot where people from across the land

gather together to support a product/game/idea, etc. It's been used from

Dove to Playstation ("Mountain"). So what if you had animals as the leads in

this anthem? That seems like a fresh take, but still conveys the central

concept that all marketers love to hear, that all living organisms LOVE

their (insert product here).

 

I also think the animals trend comes directly from the DIY videos on

YouTube. In both the examples you show, there is an amateurish quality in

the concepts themselves even though the final shots are lit well and shot

well. But the idea itself seems like something your cousin Danny might come

up with and shoot in his basement in Minnesota for his own amusement.

Because of the propagation of DIY image making, ads have taken on more of an

accessible quality that is more inclusive than exclusive. We are inviting

audience participation because we realize we depend on it for numbers. When

spots or print ads go up and get blogged about immediately, our clients are

very happy. So there is an almost universal intent out there to get people

to pay attention, like and eventually blog about everything we do. People

like animals. Thus people will like ads that feature animals.

 

Quite frankly, it's just another iteration of puppies selling toilet paper.

Who doesn't like a puppy?"

Yes, who doesn't like a puppy!?

And I also ran these by Cindy Hicks, a senior art producer at The Martin Agency. Again, I asked her if she had seen a trend.

"Yes, I have noticed.  It so bugs me!  It is the world of the cute (in some opinion) animal forwarded email (my mother in-law & countless pet people).  I think there is a dumbing-down trend. I tend to think using animal & cute kids in advertising is cheating a bit."

Hey reader- what do YOU think about kittens? And advertising? And finally, kittens within advertising?