ADWEEK
May 17, 2007
By Barbara Lippert
(Click "read more" to see the video)
NEW YORK - Kids, get the flashers going: we have another chainsaw wielding maniac in a hockey mask on the loose. In terms of Fright Night, BBDO in New York ups the ante in this Diet Mountain Dew spot: the maniac behind the mask turns out to be a little woodland creature, a ferret. After we hear a woman screaming and watch a couple run for their lives though the woods, followed by said chain-saw-wielding, mini-mask-wearing gremlin, we get this piece of info: ferrets attack more people than grizzly bears. (Although there are no doubt more bears in the woods while ferrets tend to exist more in the comfort of one's own home, don't pick up the phone!) There's more mayhem ahead: the ferret's chain saw hacks off the female's leg.
Ouch! And not particularly hilarious. A narrator appears in the woods to tell us another surprising fact: that the Diet Dew has "all the taste of the regular Dew, but none of the calories." Although we've seen many spots that parody movies like Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I believe the ferret with the chain saw is a new take on the genre. I particularly love the ferret-face-size tiny white mask. All in all, a dumb, gratuitous and, in the end, pretty entertaining way to get attention.
I don't usually add to the articles I find, but in this case I decided to. Below is a copy of the commercial I was able to obtain. Please leave a comment on what you think this add does to the perception of ferrets to people unfamiliar with them. Especially the comment "FACT: Ferrets attack more people than Grizzly Bears."
Tom Kasner
It's a Ferret Life, webmaster
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But at the same time you have a lot of people out there who believe ferrets are wild viscous animals, and equate them to rhinos (a comment in a California newspaper) and lions (Giuliani). I volunteer at adoption days for a local shelter, and still get people ask if they are rodents, and why would anyone keep a wild animal as a pet. There is too much ignorance about ferrets.