The Zoo in Madison Avenue

Retirado do livro "The Fall of Advertising and The Rise of PR" de Al e Laura Ries; crítica sobre o uso excessivo e obrigatório de criatividade nas agências de publicidade.

"Like artists in search of recognition, advertising people are quick to jump on the latest creative fad. A few years ago, animals were all the rage on Madison Avenue. One of the first advertisers to raid the zoo was Energizer, wich did bunnies.
And the animal parade was on. Coca-Cola did polar bear. Budweiser did ants, frogs, ferrets, beavers and finally lizards. Budweiser´s sibling Bud Ice went looking for an animal of its own to sponsor, so they asked themselves, who is most likely to drink an ice beer? You guessed it, penguins. So Bud Ice did penguins.
The Postal Service did eagles. Merril Lynch did bulls. Taco Bell did Chihuahuas. Allstate did deer. Dreyfus did lions. Yahoo! did dolphins. American Tourister did gorillas. E*Trade did chimpanzees. La-Z-Boy did raccoons. Cadillac did ducks. Range Rover did elephants. BMW did turtles. Turtles? The ultimate driving machine is a turtle? Top speed, two miles a day.

A recent two-page advertisement for the Saturn Vue sport-utility vehicle managed to squeeze in twenty-three different animals. Are animals in advertising good or bad? Like every question in marketing, the correct answer is always the same: it all depends. It all depends on what you are promoting. If you are promoting a zoo, animals are probably a good idea. If you are promoting an automobile, probably not.
But the creative mind thinks differently. If nobody else is using animals to promote an automobile, then animals might be a good idea. And to be really creative, the automobile advertising has to incorporate an animal that no one else is using. Hence turtles for BMW.

The zoo parade is likely to continue. More than four thousand species of mammals are available, ranging from the shrew, which weighs seven-hundredths of an ounce, to the whale, wich weighs up to 140 tons. The whale, is of course, taken by Pacific Life, but the shrew is still available if you´re still interested."