For the second time in as many months, a dog with a propensity for humping is the protagonist of a spot that’s made our "The Best Work You May Never See" gallery. In December, it was the live action German :60 "Marty" for Komtel (SHOOT, 12/10/99, p. 20). And now, from Canada, we have an animation counterpart in AIDS prevention spec work promoting condom usage. While we’re confident this isn’t the beginning of a new trend in advertising, the coincidence is as humorous as the storylines in both efforts.
In one of the AIDS awareness :15s, a dog, rendered in simple, black-and-white line animation style, is seen resting on a pillow, which he begins to hump wildly and gleefully. This scene dissolves to the same dog doing the same thing to a teddy bear, then to a birthday cake with lit candles, and yet again, while perched atop the head of a man wearing glasses. A voiceover relates that "you just never know where your last partner has been."
Then supered across the screen are single syllables that combine to form the sentence: "Use-a-con-dom, dum-dum."
Entitled "Partner," the spot was conceived by creative director/art director Paul Lavoie, writers Peter Ignazi and David Stortini, and art director James Wilkes. This creative team from Taxi Advertising and Design, Toronto, then approached Head Gear Animation, Toronto, about producing the simple yet risque animation for three different :15s. The Taxi ensemble reasoned that in order to reach youngsters and teens, it had to depart from the norm of preachy scare tactics to promote condom usage. By deploying humor and human frailty personified in a hapless, horny animated dog, a serious message is made endearing, entertaining and hopefully more likely to strike a responsive chord with its target audience.
Head Gear’s Steve Angel served as animation director and animator on the campaign. The rest of the Head Gear contingent consisted of assistant animator Julia Deakin, After Effects editor Nick Fairhead and executive producer Persis Reynolds. Composers/sound designers were Tom Eymundson and Tom Third of Pirate Radio, Toronto.
Lavoie’s plan was to complete the spots and then find an interested health organization or corporate sponsor, such as a condom manufacturer, to buy airtime for the campaign. That hadn’t yet happened at press time, although two of the ads, including "Partner," have been shown as interstitial programming on Much Music, Canada’s music video channel.
