Lions & Tigers & Bears, oh my

I’ll start by saying this month’s topic does not really compute, not for me. Maybe they hit my subconscious, but for the most part, I barely remember commercials. Admittedly, an awesome book or movie trailer might stick with me for awhile. In fact mean, don’t let me get started on the Deadpool & Wolverine trailer [Whoooimboutamakeanameformyselfyea!] That one will be with me for a long time, and I refuse to admit how many times that trailer has worked to get me back inside a theater to see the movie.

 
Maybe that’s what it takes for me to find a trailer or commercial memorable - it has to suck me in. Kind of like what a good book needs to do. But there is one class of commercial that does stick with me, even when I have never used the product. I mean commercials starring animals.

I can go all the way back to the Budweiser frogs in the 1990s. I know, many of you have never even heard of Bud, Weis and Er, but their croaking together waqs the stuff of legends.  There were also a set of Budweiser chameleons running around for a few years.  Now we are left with the beloved Clysdales. 

Obviously, Anheuser-Busch knows the draw of animals. They even have tours available at Warm Sprinds Ranch, the official breeding facility of the Budweiser Clydesdales. There, visitors can experience a number of behind the scenes activities with the Clydesdale horses. https://www.warmspringsranch.com/

Animals just make anything better. Take Smokey Bear, an icon from my childhood stretching all the way to today. The Smokey Bear Wildfire Prevention campaign is the longest-running public service advertising campaign in U.S. history. In 1950, an orphaned black bear cub was rescued by firefighters after it was injured in a wildfire. The cub ended up in the National Zoo in Washington D C and became the first living Smokey Bear. You can explore Smokey's history and future, and find activities for kids, at his official website:

  https://smokeybear.com/

The Coca-Cola polar bears are CGI, but I still love seeing them come out for winter commercials and the Super Bowl. Something about watching that clumsy family always leaves me glued to the screen. I know they are not real, but there sure are fun.Hats off to the animators who produce such attention to detail. 

For me, an added plus comes from knowing that the company works in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to help communities facing the climate crisis and those in need of fresh water. They also work to address the melting arctic ice caps that leave real life polar bears stranded and starving.

Speaking of CGI, the Geico Gecko has held a spot in my heart since the first time I saw him. No, I don't have Geico, but that gecko gets to me. The elegance, the accent, the savoir-faire - I just love the whole little  package.

Before I stop, I have one last commercial icon, going from CGI all the way back to the good old-fashioned cartoons of my youth and my very first beloved commercial character. As a child, I sat at the breakfast table and studied pictures of Tony the Tiger, the jungle cat from Kelloggs. He had me devouring frosted flakes and practicing my roar before I even had an inkling about what marketing was. He and those boxes probably helped me learn to read. 

Lo these many decades later, I still fully believe frosted flakes are GR-R-REAT!, proof that if you start them off young you can instill anything inside impressionable minds. I for one will never cancel Tony.