RUNNING HEAD: ANIMALS AS IMAGES

Cognitive Strategies in Advertising:

Animals as Images
John Lestingi
University of Southern Indiana

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Abstract
Animals are very effective in helping consumers recall a brand. They are especially
heavily utilized on super bowl advertisements for specific companies such as Budweiser and
Doritos. The products are intended to be used by humans, however, some commercials use
animals in different ways to trigger a recall in a target audience. The coordination for some
animals to certain products do not make sense while others work perfectly in utilizing rhetoric. A
good example is the 2016 Marmot commercial where a marmot is used to represent the outdoor
clothing and gear company, marmot. This is perfect considering the marmot is a wild animal and
can be mainly found out in the woods or mountains. Another example is how dogs are used to
represent Doritos. This does not make sense because dogs cannot be fed Doritos. Salty snacks
are not good for dogs and can make them develop serious health issues. This indicates that the
dogs are just there for looks, to be cute and associate the consumer with the product.

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Introduction
In the essence of animals being used in advertising, this study focuses on what animal is
used to specifically represent a brand. Some animals carry the perfect characteristics that can fit
in well with a company's image. Other animals are used in order to just be cute and help the
consumer recall the brand because of just being there. In this study, twenty-five super bowl
advertisement was selected and examined for their contents of animals.
The animal's characteristics were separated into five categories; species, personality, size,
image, and what type of product they were representing. Each of these categories played a vital
role in understanding how the brands are exposed to target audiences and helped them develop
recall. Specific brands utilized the characteristics of their animals in order to present a
respectable image of the product or service. Other brands did not focus on the specific
characteristics, and just put an animal in because it could affect the audience's emotions.
This study specifically focuses on what characteristics were utilized by the companies in
order to expose the audience to the message. Using quantitative data, each characteristic was
marked down in each commercial when exposed. The usage of dogs was relatively high while
other animals did not compete for as much. Dogs were also used to represent products intended
to be consumed by humans including alcohol and food.

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Literature review
In this review, five total sources are interpreted to find useful content pertaining to my
research. I use three scholarly, peer-reviewed research articles to present the foundation of my
thesis statement in how animals affect humans in advertising. Within those documents, I use
other researchers and authors who have helped the articles present their cases to help grow my
arguments. I also use one .com website to find the basic TV ratings of Super Bowl 50.

Overview
Berland (2009) stated because animals react to feeling without expressing it, it creates a
sense of attachment within humans. This attachment that humans experience is then channeled
through the sales message of the product, ultimately eliciting the emotions of the target audience.
At this point since there is already an attachment made, the audience has become aroused and the
advertisement is, from there on considered memorable. Presenting them as a medium in
advertising can help sales messages poses underlying messages affecting the human
subconscious, eliciting emotions to help the human being remember the specific details of a
product shown to them. Most brands that utilize animals; such as dog food, make the intended
target audience think about caring for their loved one. This gives them the impression that a
certain type of food is necessary to provide the utmost nutrition for their dogs or other animals.
In most Super Bowl advertisement commercials, the target audience is amplified by the millions.
According to a study conducted by CNN, the 2016 Super Bowl managed to reach a total
audience, 111.9 million viewers. The event was ranked as the third most-watched television
broadcast in history. Having animals in their advertisements every year, the advertising brands in
the Super Bowl are eliciting the emotions of millions of people within a single day. This leads
me to want to discover how effective the Super Bowl advertisements containing animals are

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towards their audience. The purpose of this study then is to determine how effective the reach of
a sales message is when it contains an animal presenting the brand.

Animals as communicators
Animals are an iconic sale symbols that have helped target the emotions key to attracting
consumer audiences to a product. Berland quotes Jonathan Burt suggesting the two possible
conditions that animals play when presented in advertising artwork: "Something to say and
nothing to say."An example that can be elicited from this theory is the Clydesdale horses used to
represent some of Budweiser beer's commercials. The Clydesdale horse presented in Budweiser's
2016 Super Bowl advertisement portrays this type of emotion by standing stationary next to a
man who is grabbing a different kind of beer. The horse is meant to represent a person
disappointed in somebody making the wrong decision. This can be noted with the horse's blank
stare and focus on the man picking up the fox forest beer instead of the Budweiser. After the man
picks up the Budweiser beer, the horse looks away towards the camera and makes a noise,
representing its satisfaction of the consumer choosing the right product.

Animals as Images
Another study conducted by Kimberly Moyers focused on the use of animals in magazine
advertisements. A source she used in her study; Rook (1999), concluded that how animals
portray themselves as symbols and meanings cast either a positive or a negative impression on a
product. His build on the foundation that certain animals can affect certain audiences in different
ways. Moyers (2001) for example concluded in her master's study that the type of animal used
can help or hurt attraction of a target audience. For example, a wild animal that is not typically
used as a household pet can be implemented in a message to represent something completely
different than a domestic one. One example of a message that was presented with an animal to its

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target audience was the Marmot outdoor clothing and sporting goods commercial. The
commercial was intended to get the American target audience to visit the outdoors more and
experience nature. The company did this by presenting the sales message with a Marmot; a large,
wild outdoor squirrel found in various parts of North America, Europe, and Asia. The Marmot in
the commercial is not real, instead, video edited to give it a humanistic personality. It holds a
close relationship with the other character in the advertisement, representing a furry little friend
to enjoy the outdoors with. This brings together the unity of Marmots Super Bowl advertisement.
A wild animal representing the wild outdoors is where consumers should be. The only way to get
the best experience outdoors (according to Marmot) is to use their products.

Animals in culture
The final study which I will present for analysis into this research project comes from
Doug Harbrecht (1993) in his article Animals in the Ad Game. One point that he really
emphasize with his example of the British company story in the beginning of the study is "When
it comes to using wildlife in advertising, it's not so much the nature of the beast as the feeling the
creature evokes in humans that really counts." This may be true in the sense that we have to fit
the right animal with the right product. However, we also have to fit them with the right culture
as well. Some cultures view animals as sacred, others as food. While trying to elicit their
emotions, not all consumers will agree that a certain animal in an advertisement is pleasant to
have. For example, Harbrecht (1993) mentions in his article about how the agricultural
machinery John Deere made an effort to expand to Brazil:
"John Deere, North American makers of heavy agricultural machinery, uses a buck stag
as its company logo--both as a play on the founder's name and a masculine symbol that any
North American would recognize on sight. But when John Deere entered the South American

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market, Brazilians were bemused. "Deer" in this macho country is slang for "big-city
homosexual." The company had to scale back the use of its distinctive logo in Latin America."
As humorous as it may be, animals represent a large sense of symbolism to a population.
In America, we consider John Deer to be a leading, agricultural, American tough brand. The
company has implanted the idea in America's head that their equipment is the best to perform
with out in the field. While this may be true for us, other cultures do not hold the same Idealism
as we do. Therefore, animals should be considered from a cultural aspect before they are used to
represent brands in other countries.

Conclusion
Animals are used as effective advertising mediums towards human emotions involving
attachment. In the study I intend to conduct, I will be analyzing 25 various Super Bowl
advertisements to determine how the animals are used in each. The animals will either represent
a relationship between them and humans, a symbol representing a product, or as a character
holding human characteristics. Each of these features will either be deemed present or not
present in the advertisements. From there, I can determine who they are playing a role in eliciting
human emotions, and determine how effective they are in the sense of representing the brand.

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Methodology
In this study, 25 sample Super Bowl advertisements from various lengths and years were
selected to be analyzed. The advertisements were provided by different channels on
youtube.com. Each one contained the characteristics that specifically showed how an animal
represented a brand; image, size, personality, product and species. In the viewing of each
advertisement, at least one of the characteristics was searched for in order to determine its
effectiveness. Each of these variables played a vital role in the effectiveness of the
advertisement. Some of these characteristics separated certain brands from others by utilizing the
animal's characteristics to their product. When these characteristics were spotted, they were
uploaded to the data analysis software SPSS. The results were analyzed and charts were created
comparing the usage of animals in advertising.

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Results

This chart represents the basics of the study. 25 products were presented in 25
advertisements utilizing 25 animals. Each animal carried its own size, personality, image,
product, and species.

For this study, 6 total industries were examined using animals. The results showed that
ironically, only one sample was representing animal products. Most animals in the samples were
used to represent human food and alcoholic beverages. This is contradictory considering animals
cannot consume either one of these items. Vehicles used animals to represent their speed and
reliability. Other studies include human accessories like shoes and jewelry, as well as other
various products.

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Different animals were utilized to represent different products. These results show how
often an animal was used. Dogs were mainly utilized considering they were very family friendly.
However, they were mostly used in Budweiser and Doritos commercials. These products can be
harmful to dogs, however, the media is more worried about their exposure. The equines used in
the advertising represented Budweiser with the Clydesdale horses as their image. Other animals
included larger animals such as bulls, cows, rhinos, and bears.

How the animals were presented also played a big role in how the products were exposed
to audiences. Most commercials used animals as domesticated house pets, mainly dogs. The dogs
usually represented a family based style of humor in order to connect with the various audiences

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in the Super Bowl. Very little advertisements used still images as animals, and some utilized
anthropomorphism to bring their animals to life with human characteristics. Other ways animals
were presented included being dead and used as a decoration (such as a trophy).

Each animal utilized a different personality to represent the brand. Most of the animals
presented were domesticated and welcome in human homes. However, other products (such as
cars) utilized wild animals to show how fast and reliable a car is. The farm animals were mainly
used to represent alcoholic beverage commercials, such as Budweiser.

The size of the animal played a big role in how the product stood in the consumer's eyes.
While most of the animals were domesticated house dogs, some of them were larger than others.
Larger animals (such as farm animals) were used to represent an ongoing spirit with their
product. The Clydesdale horse was heavily utilized in the most recent Budweiser commercial,
representing how the product has a "never stop going" spirit.

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Discussion
This study mainly exposed how animals were utilized to represent products. It is clear
that the Super Bowl has a very large, family-based audience. This must have been why
domesticated house dogs were so popular in various products. Being a food brand, Doritos must
have used these animals to connect with this specific audience base. This leaves in discussion
how the other animals could have been used to connect with these same audiences. Alcoholic
beverages cannot be consumed by a younger audience, however, smaller domesticated house
dogs are still used to represent them. After determining the kind of relationship Budweiser held
to their audience, it is easy to determine that "friends" is what their advertising mainly focused
around. Considering the Super Bowl is the most-watched TV program in America, a lot of
people will want to drink beer while enjoying the game.
Another final thought in this study is how wild animals were not as popular as the
domesticated animals. Marmot outdoor gear and clothing effectively used a marmot to represent
their product. The animals were classified as a small, wild, anthropomorphized, rat used to
represent camping equipment. Another final look is how the puppymonkeybaby was utilized in
Mountain Dews Kickstart commercial. The creature in the video is 2/3rds animal and 1/3rd
human. This was very concerning to most audiences, as some were very grossed out by the
image. However, its effective use landed in the memories of many consumers across America.
This ultimately made the reach of the product, very successful.
Animals are very useful in the world of advertising. When properly presented, consumers
can be attracted and connect with certain product and brands. The only challenge in doing this is
the amount of creativity put into the sales message. Consumers will not fall short of eliciting
emotions when affected by man's best friend.

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References
Berland, J. (2009). Animal and/as Medium: Symbolic Work in Communicative Regimes. The
Global South, 3(1).
Harbrecht, D. (1993). Animals in the Ad Game.
Moyers, K. N. (2001). Use of Animal Imagery in Magazine Advertisements. Retrieved March
23, 2016
Pallotta, F., & Stelter, B. (2016, February 8). Super Bowl 50 audience is third largest in TV
history
Rook, D.W. (1999). Brands, Consumers, Symbols & Research: Sydney Levy on Marketing.
London: Sage Publications, Inc.