Archive for the ‘anthropomorphic’ category
September 11, 2013
Sears has given us a great gift in their commercial, Squirrel Revolt, about the best furry-themed ad that I’ve seen in months! The commercial begins with the fictitious Denskie couple entering their home, where Bob Denskie reveals to his better half that he’s trained those “pesky squirrels” to cut coupons! And so we are shown realistic CGI squirrels, about half a dozen sitting at tiny individual work tables and industriously using scissors. “I love your brain, Bob!,” says his adoring wife. “So do I!,” agrees Bob immodestly.
All is not well, however, in this workers’ paradise, for a moment later one squirrel throws his worktable over and screams:
“Enough! — Your tyranny ends now, you filthy humans!” With that, nuts are thrown, tiny fires are ignited, and the squirrel leader flings himself onto the face of his human oppressor! This is getting good! Bob screams at his wife to get the squirrel off his face, and she obliges by repeatedly whacking him in the head with a golf club! –Ooh, that’s gotta hurt! The Day of the Squirrel is at hand…and it does not bode well for the Denskies.
I, for one, wish to avoid the great and terrible wrath of the squirrel, so I don’t put them to hard labor in sweat shops, but rather feed them peanuts in parks. Perhaps they will remember this small kindness, and spare me in the coming tribulation…
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, Brilliant but twisted, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: Sears squirrel revolt, squirrels cutting coupons
Comments: 3 Comments
September 9, 2013
— Love them or hate them, cats have been a powerful presence in advertising, and since at least the 20th century, they’ve also been associated with music, especially jazz. They’re part of the language; consider idiomatic references like hep cat, swing cat, cool cat, and the list goes on. Perhaps it’s because cats are independent and tend to choose their own focus that they’ve come to be associated with music forms that are cutting edge and a bit outside of the mainstream, at least at their inception and at one particular point in time.
It’s perhaps only natural then that cats should update and transition into studio and technology based forms of musical expression, functioning as disc jockeys and engineering today’s sound in a Fresh Step kitty litter commercial…
Categories: animal spokepersons, animals, anthropomorphic, cool things, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: cats, cats and music, Fresh Step
Comments: 3 Comments
August 24, 2013
– – Skunks often get the short end of the stick because of their stink, but Pepe Le Pew is one of the few cartoon characters fighting for skunk liberation, to say nothing of the male libido…
…a second tier yet memorable Warner Bros. character, Pepe was a stereotypic Frenchman in the same manner that Speedy Gonzalez was a stereotypic Mexican. Pepe would perpetually stroll about Paris in the spring, foisting his totally unwelcome romantic attentions upon an unfortunate black feline, Penelope Pussycat, whom Pepe would always mistake to be a female skunk. Penelope’s resemblance to a skunk was often generated by some plot device such as the cat crawling under a freshly painted white fence, and emerging with a white stripe down her back; Pepe was readily deceived, perhaps because of his own eagerness. Much of the ensuing cartoon antics would then center about Pepe’s persistent pursuit of the misperceived female, and her frantic efforts to escape his amorous intentions.
Little would deter or dissuade the amorous French skunk, even acts of physical violence against himself by the cat, which Pepe interpreted as playing “hard to get.” Pepe’s self-assurance and rock-solid sexual confidence always propelled him forward, with reality seldom intruding on his belief systems; he was a soft-core sexual predator unaware of his own repugnancy for whom the pursuit was everything. The Pepe Le Pew cartoons traded in absurdity, and perhaps resonated within any person who had ever experienced an irrational and hopeless love attraction or been the recipient of unwanted romantic advances…
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, cartoons, famous furries, furry
Tags: Pepe Le Pew, toon skunks
Comments: 2 Comments
August 11, 2013
– – Cernunnos is a righteous dude, and perhaps an early furry lifestyler! Also known as the horned god, Cernunnos is the antlered “God of the Forest” and often considered “God of the Animals” who is often portrayed as sporting a rather significant set of deer, elk, or moose horns; moreover, he wears them well! An anthropomorphic being, Cernunnos is often depicted with an impressive rack while the head beneath is sometimes human and at other times shown as that of a stag. The body tends to be human, ending in feet that in some depictions are cloven deer hooves.
Celebrated in Celtic mythology and also incorporated into pagan and Wiccan traditions, Cernunnos represents a number of things, mostly good; he is the lord of the hunt, associated with both the hunter and the hunted, and is kind of an embodiment of nature; he would certainly be an unapologetic tree-hugger. Cernunnos also represents prosperity and abundance, for which purpose he is often pictured with an overflowing purse of coins. Cernunnos is also associated with life, death, and rebirth, for which reason some images of him depict an antlered skull head, while I consider him more of a vigorous life force embodiment. Along these lines, Cernunnos is also identified with male sexuality, fertility, and the celebration of it; he is, after all, horny! The deity holds or is in the presence of a snake in many images, another phallic symbol. In some images, the deity is shown as quite a hunk who could probably sell products to housewives easily; advertisers please note! He is mysterious, elemental, and rather medieval in an enticing “Game of Thrones” way…
Cernunnos is associated with the fire element and the life-giving power of the sun. Being all of these things and more, Cernunnos has rather big hooves to fill, but serves all of his roles admirably and well. I rather like the dude and could work for him; note the fox by his feet in this image…
Categories: animal presence, anthropomorphic, furry, furry-like
Tags: Animal gods, Cernunnos, horned deities, Mythology
Comments: 2 Comments
August 5, 2013
– – It’s kind of a “night of the living dead venison” commercial; a guy is shown kicking back with three male friends in a comfy room, the mounted head of an antlered deer hanging on the wall. The doorbell rings, and the guy answers the door. There standing at the door is every hunter’s worst nightmare; the body of the slaughtered deer, minus its head! It gets creepier; you can see the headless torso breathing!
“Who is it?,” asks the head of the slaughtered deer from the wall; you can see its mouth move, and its eyes blink. The guy is too stunned to say anything, so the deer head repeats its question; “Seriously, who is it?” Again, the host is unable to answer, the headless body lingering in the doorway…end of commercial!
First airing in July of 2012, this is creepy yet wonderful stuff, imparting the message that Mike’s hard lemonade is different, and that as the host tells a friend of the lemonade, “sometimes you gotta change things up.” If every hunter was visited by an undead version of their slain prey, it might indeed make a world of difference…(Twilight Zone theme plays in the background)
Categories: animal rights, animals, anthropomorphic, bizarre, Brilliant but twisted, furry commercials, television
Tags: animal zombies, Mike's hard lemonade deer
Comments: 2 Comments
August 3, 2013
— Does it get much better than Wonder Woman versus the Cheetah? Not by much it doesn’t; I’d want to pull up a chair and watch this one!
There are relatively few female villains worthy of note, and fewer still of the furry persuasion; Cheetah fills the gap purr-fectly! As with most comic book superheroes and villains, Cheetah has gone through a number of re-imaginings, ranging from the rather ridiculous to the superbly menacing. I like my Cheetah anthropomorphic and ferociously feral, thank you! She’s evil yet alluring and seductive, more than enough to make a good boy turn bad. In the world of female furry felines, Catwoman remains the gold standard but Cheetah prowls not far behind, roaming closer to the jungle and lacking the breakout status Catwoman has achieved.
The Cheetah was originally portrayed as a woman in a costume, but over the years has come to be shown as far more than that. The character even had a heretical stint in a male incarnation! I like the character’s portrayal as Barbara Ann Minerva, kind of a cursed/blessed archaeologist who through supernatural intervention has transformational powers. Her status as an archenemy of Wonder Woman has at times been rooted in a desire to possess the Amazon’s golden “Lasso of Truth,” while at other times it’s more of a bruised ego thing. At any rate, it makes for memorable cat fights which are usually inconclusive or open-ended; you don’t really want to kill off a great villain or villainess as they are what makes for a better story and a more appealing protagonist.
At any rate, I’d secretly root for the Cheetah.- – Long may she vex Wonder Woman, and perhaps someday she’ll achieve the stand-alone and cult status that Catwoman enjoys. In one animated outing, the Cheetah did have a tryst of sorts with Batman, who saw that she although in league with villains lacked true criminal intent; she just needed money to further her scientific research, what with funding cuts and all. Many of us have felt that pinch, and I wouldn’t mind feeling hers…Rrowr!
Categories: animals, anthropomorphic, comics, furry
Tags: Classic clashes, furry villainesses
Comments: 2 Comments
July 26, 2013
— In France and elsewhere, a soft drink is sold called Orangina. A memorable commercial was made for the product in 2010 which featured a CGI-generated anthropomorphic male cougar who liked the product so much that the big cat applied it to his face following shaving like lotion to soften his skin. As the viewer is wondering why a cougar shaves or why a soft drink has skin applications, a bare-chested human male enters the scene who approaches the cougar, and shares, shall we say, a tender moment with him…
…yes, cross-species same-sex attraction! — Ah. those French are such sly dogs, are they not…or perhaps I should say, cats? — Meow!
Categories: absurdities, animals, anthropomorphic, furry, furry commercials, strange, television
Tags: gay cat commercial, Orangina cat commercial
Comments: 2 Comments
July 12, 2013
— I, for one, have always found the Charmin Bear family rather dysfunctional and somewhat disturbing. Now, we all know that bears defecate in the woods, but I just don’t think that it’s normal or healthy for there to be so much preoccupation over the matter of toilet paper. I mean, the episode where Leonard, the father bear, is basically alone stroking the toilet paper by himself while almost in a trance-like state as he mutters “so soft!” strikes me as being rather creepy, or reflecting an unhealthy and unnatural obsession. Then there are control issues reflected, as when one or another of the bears (usually the males) are told (by Momma Bear Molly) how much toilet paper to use, and that they can be using less. — I mean, this is ‘merica, right, and I can be using as much dang toilet paper as I want to! The tag line is even “less is more;” what are these bears, Republicans?! Also we have the episode where one boy bear has little bits of TP all over his bear behind, and is called to task for it by Momma Bear, Molly…this seems to violate his body space, dignity, and personal privacy rights! There are also unresolved issues that beg to be addressed in this psychodrama, such as the apparent use of toilet paper (“bathroom tissue,” excuse me) without toilets or even bathrooms…and what of the minimally-rendered forest in which these bears reside? Where is this unreal estate located, the Twilight Zone?
All in all, we haven’t seen this much obsession over toilet paper since the days of store owner Mr. Whipple, who chastised customers for squeezing the Charmin while secretly engaging in the same behavior himself, a paragon of hypocrisy. The Mr. Whipple character was retired, by the way, when the actor portraying him died, death being the ultimate form of retirement…
Categories: animal spokepersons, animals, anthropomorphic, furry, furry commercials, humor, television
Tags: advertising, Bears, Charmin
Comments: 2 Comments
July 9, 2013
– – The latest Geico commercial is a hoot! Now everyone knows that 15 minutes with Geico can save you 15% or more on car insurance, but “did you know that some owls aren’t that wise?,” asks one woman on the road to her male car companion.
The scene then shifts to the woods at night, where a female owl is reminding her mate that she’s having brunch with Megan tomorrow. “Who?,” responds the male owl. “Megan, my co-worker,” clarifies the female owl. “Who?,” again calls the male owl. “Seriously, you’ve met her like three times!,” adds the female owl. “Who?,” replies the male once again. At that point, it’s time for an exasperated sigh from the female owl as her head turns away…I’m sure that many of us guys have experienced this kind of thing, but honestly, we’re not all clueless!
Categories: animal spokepersons, animals, anthropomorphic, avian, feathered friends, furry commercials, television
Tags: Geico owls, some owls aren't that wise
Comments: 4 Comments
July 6, 2013
– – Although I never cease to be amazed at the things which offend some people and cause them to go on the warpath, cute, cuddly Geico spokesman Maxwell the pig seems an unlikely target. He’s sweet, innocent, resourceful, and just trying to make his way in the world like the rest of us.
Nonetheless, this unlikely target has at least in some of his commercials drawn the ire of certain far right groups, including the conservative group One Million Moms, which reports having received numerous complaints over such ads as the one depicting Maxwell parked in a car on a date with a girl. The female in question appears, shall we say, to wish to advance their relationship to the next level. Maxwell, the hip but at times clueless innocent, occupies himself instead with a phone app game of “Fruit Ninja.” Not amused, the One Million Moms group sees the commercial as promoting bestiality, termed it repulsive and unnecessary, and wished to see it pulled from airing immediately.
Puh-leeze! While there’s some innuendo going on in the commercial, it’s light-hearted, and so ridiculous as to be more absurd than shocking. Humor when devoid of any satirical content fast becomes bland and meaningless. One might also argue that Maxwell in unintentionally or otherwise blocking his date’s advances has substituted a more “wholesome” activity, yet we do not see conservative watchdog groups marketing Maxwell chastity rings. The group in question also objected on similar grounds to a Skittles commercial featuring a girl and a walrus.
To paraphrase an old popular song, all we are saying…is give pigs a chance! And some people need to find better things to occupy their time as well…
Categories: animal spokepersons, animals, anthropomorphic, controversial, famous furries, furry, furry commercials, television
Tags: Geico pig, Maxwell
Comments: 3 Comments
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