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| Media,
Justin Harries,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F4
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How far can one go when promoting that most subterranean of household items, the toilet tissue? Of course, ad-men are not going to taint their clients wares with even the idea of that most unsightly of bodily functions, and so have a tendency to overcompensate in the direction of cute. Andrex struck gold with a forumla that still runs today. To advertise their particular brand of tissue they present us with that endearing and enduring icon, the pinnacle of cute itself, the Adrex puppy. Now, what does one think when one sees one of these oh so dear mutts frolicking with loveable abandon? Certainly not an image of bog paper smeared with your recently freed bowel contents. And so, with just the right dash of cuteness, our ad-man succeeded in making Andrex associated not with poo, but with pooches. However, such animals do have a reputation for fouling at unfortunate moments and areas, so a connection can be forged if needed by our beleaguered ad-man.
The latest Charmin ultra commercials stays on the anthropomorphizing tip. Using an animation style almost as unbearable as those Red Bull ads, Charmin presents us with a whole parade of walking, talking animals. However, even if Charmin stays within the realm of cute, a breakthrough of sorts is apparent, one grounded in a little more reality. For a long time I have been awaiting a commercial unafraid of exploring the lavatory experience in more detail, and one of the Charmin ads goes along towards this: we actually see the expression on the characters face as he wipes his arse. OK, so he may be an animated bear, and no, he does not inspect the paper after use, but the actual appliance of toilet paper has never been more explicit.
Where does this lead us? Will animation be replaced by the real thing, and will other tissue makers continue to push the envelope, pardon my pun. Time to ditch those puppies Andrex, time to get real, before the shit really hits the fan.
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