Have you taken the Cute Fight poll yet? Baby lemur vs. penguin chick … It’s a tough one.
The Toronto Zoo’s Cute Fight Facebook app is a companion piece to their latest television spot. If you haven’t enjoyed it yet, click on the video below and get ready to rock out …
Cute Fight!
If you didn’t find that adorable, I’m afraid we can’t be internet buddies any longer.
This spot is only the latest in a long series of memorable television ads for the Toronto Zoo, produced by local agency Lowe Roche, in collaboration with partners like Aardman Animations & Head Gear Animation.
Let’s take a trip through the past awesomeness of the Toronto Zoo’s television ads, from the most recent pieces to some golden oldies…
Most people will remember last year’s award-winning African penguin spots below.
Rock, Paper, Scissors
Guano
The digital side to this campaign featured a SayItWithPenguins.com website where fans could send each other notes written in “penguin”. The claymation style in the ads was designed by Head Gear Animation.
Penguins weren’t the only animated animals for the zoo; polar bears featured in these 2010 spots produced in partnership with the UK’s Aardman Animations & Arthur Cox.
See My Breath
Blubber
The art direction on these is so clever and was mirrored in some of the products sold at the Zoo .. including these crayons & colouring books … Arctic white, frost white, snowball white!
Going further back to 2008-2009, Torontonians will fondly recall the movie parody spots produced to promote Stingray Bay & The Great Barrier Reef exhibits. The most memorable of the two was the Hunt for Red October pastiche below.
Stingray Bay
The Great Barrier Reef
And zooming back to 2007, to promote “Dinosaurs Alive!”, the zoo put together a “believe it!” campaign featuring mythical creatures talking about the mechanical dinosaurs at the zoo.
Leprechauns – Believe it!
Fairies – Believe it!
The website for Dinosaurs Alive allowed you to incubate a dinosaur egg and hatch it. Pretty cute idea, getting notified by email .. “Your dinosaur has hatched!”
And the first Toronto Zoo campaign to catch my attention was “Jealous Animals” from 2006. The ads featured normal animals like pigeons, cats & squirrels reacting with extreme prejudice to mentions of the zoo.
Jealous Squirrel
Apparently I missed the “Pigeons Against the Zoo’s Extraordinary Animals” protest rally on MySpace, but I’m sure it was awesome.
Did any of these ads get your ass out of your seat and down to the zoo over the years?
Uh, I made this blog on a PC. So it’s a bit crap. Like real people. 