The house hippo is a fictitious species of hippopotamus, and the subject of a Canadian television public service announcement (PSA) produced by Concerned Children's Advertisers (later known as Companies Committed to Kids) in May 1999 [1] and reintroduced by MediaSmarts in 2019. [2]
The spot shows footage and describes the behaviour of the "North American house hippo", a fictional animal found "throughout Canada, and the eastern United States". [3] The animal is described as sleeping for 16 hours per day, and enjoying a diet of raisins, chips and "crumbs from peanut butter on toast". [4] The hippo is shown foraging in a kitchen, confronting a house cat, and making a nest from lost mittens to go to sleep. [5]
The stated intent of the piece is to educate children about critical thinking with regard to what they see in television advertising, and remind them that "it's good to think about what you're watching on TV, and ask questions". [4]
The original house hippo spot was just over one minute long. [6] The piece was directed by Tim Hamilton (Avion Films) and used live action in combination with visual effects from Spin Productions. [4]
The hippo was portrayed with the use of modified stock footage: video from "various sources" was rotoscoped with Commotion software filling in between frames. Artist Rob Fiumano edited the footage, for example adding in feet that were obscured in the original videos. To incorporate this material into the live-action video, Spin added shadowing, blurring, focus rolls and colour correction "to bring the stock and original footage together seamlessly". [4]
The piece is narrated in the style of a Hinterland Who's Who spot. [3] The composer and sound designer was Eric Harry. [4]
"The Hidden World of the House Hippo" was the winner of the Golden Marble Award in the category of best public service advertising in 1999. [7] This award recognizes "outstanding achievement in kids advertising". [8]
European company Media Smart adapted the footage in 2002 to create a new commercial for UK television. [9] The UK version was considerably shorter and featured new narration and background music as well as a new ending promoting the company's website.
Canadian media literacy nonprofit MediaSmarts created a new version of the PSA in 2019 as part of its Break the Fake campaign. [2] [10] The new version, produced by Ottawa media production firm HyperActive, was more explicit that the hippo was not real and was accompanied by lesson plans to encourage teachers to use the PSA in their classes. The video [11] was revised to remind children that they should not trust everything they see on the internet. (Companies Committed to Kids, the successor to Concerned Children's Advertisers, folded in 2017.)
A snuff film, snuff movie, or snuff video is a theoretical type of film, produced for profit or financial gain, that shows, or purports to show, scenes of actual homicide. The victims are supposedly typically lured to their murders by false pretenses and their murder is then filmed and the video depicting it is sold to buyers.
A television advertisement is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. Advertisers and marketers may refer to television commercials as TVCs.
Hinterland Who's Who is a Canadian series of 60-second public service announcements profiling Canadian animals, produced by Environment Canada Wildlife Service and the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in the 1960s and 70s, and re-launched by the Canadian Wildlife Federation in the 2000s.
Advertising in video games is the integration of advertising into video games to promote products, organizations, or viewpoints.
The Advertising Council, commonly known as Ad Council, is an American nonprofit organization that produces, distributes, and promotes public service announcements or PSAs on behalf of various sponsors, including nonprofit organizations, non-governmental organizations and agencies of the United States government.
This Is Your Brain on Drugs was a large-scale US anti-narcotics campaign by Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) launched in 1987, that used three televised public service announcements (PSAs) and a related poster campaign.
Roku, Inc. is an American streaming technology company, founded in 2002 by Anthony Wood. It produces streaming players and TVs, licenses its technology to other manufacturers, and distributes streaming services on its platform. Roku leads streaming TV distribution in the U.S., reaching 120 million viewers as of 2024. Outside the U.S., the company operates in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Companies Committed to Kids was a Canadian non-profit organization based in Toronto, founded in 1990 by former chief executive officer Sunni Boot and former president of the Global Television Network David Mintz as a contributive production-wide body dedicated to launching campaigns and expressing the significance of their public service announcements to target children between the ages of eight and 12. It produced over 30 announcements, covering topics such as drug abuse, conformity, self-esteem, and bullying. Each PSA ends with the logo of the organization. Usually, the commercials partnered up with Health Canada.
In the marketing and advertising industry, youth marketing consists of activities to communicate with young people, typically in the age range of 11 to 35. More specifically, there is teen marketing, targeting people age 11 to 17; college marketing, targeting college-age consumers, typically ages 18 to 24; and young adult marketing, targeting ages 25 to 34.
Toy advertising is the promotion of toys through a variety of media. Advertising campaigns for toys have been criticized for trading on children's naivete and for turning children into premature consumers. Advertising to children is usually regulated to ensure that it meets defined standards of honesty and decency. These rules vary from country to country, with some going as far as banning all advertisements that are directed at children.
Advertising to children refers to the act of advertising products or services to children as defined by national laws and advertising standards.
Pat et Stanley is an animated series that appeared as part of the children's television programme TFOU on the French network TF1. The show is animated by Mac Guff and created by Pierre Coffin, who would later on co-direct Despicable Me at the same studio via Illumination Entertainment.
Round Table Advertising is a privately held full-service advertising agency located in Toronto, Ontario. The company was founded as Round Table Advertising Inc. in 2000 by former co-workers Sallah Cayer, Fiona Gallagher, and Brent Peterson.
The Country Network is an American cable, streaming and broadcast television network that specializes in broadcasting country music videos and exclusive original music-based content; its playlist of videos extends from the 1990s through the present day. The network also airs occasional infomercials and traditional advertising.
Advertising is a form of selling a product to a certain audience in which communication is intended to persuade an audience to purchase products, ideals or services regardless of whether they want or need them. While advertising can be seen as a way to inform the audience about a certain product or idea it also comes with a cost because the sellers have to find a way to show the seller interest in their product. It is not without social costs. Unsolicited commercial email and other forms of spam have become so prevalent that they are a major nuisance to internet users, as well as being a financial burden on internet service providers. Advertising increasingly invades public spaces, such as schools, which some critics argue is a form of child exploitation. Advertising frequently uses psychological pressure on the intended consumer, which may be harmful. As a result of these criticisms, the advertising industry has seen low approval rates in surveys and negative cultural portrayals.
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational programs to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as Frontline, Nova, PBS News Hour, Masterpiece, Sesame Street, and This Old House.
Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children. It also funds research on the role of media in the lives of children and advocates publicly for child-friendly policies and laws regarding media.
MediaSmarts is a Canadian non-profit organization and registered charity based in Ottawa, Ontario, that focuses on digital and media literacy programs and resources. In particular, the organization promotes critical thinking via educational resources and analyzes the content of various types of mass media.
YouTube Kids is an American video app and website for children developed by YouTube, a subsidiary of Google. The app provides a version of the service oriented solely towards children, with curated selections of content, parental control features, and filtering of videos deemed inappropriate for viewing by children under the age of 13, in accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits the regular YouTube app from advertising to children under the age of 13.
Hippo Hardware and Trading Company, or simply Hippo Hardware, is a hardware store in Portland, Oregon. Established by Steven Miller and Stephen Oppenheim in southeast Portland in 1976, the business has operated from its current location on East Burnside Street in the Buckman neighborhood since 1990. Hippo Hardware sells new and salvaged hardware, lighting, plumbing and other materials, as has a hippopotamus theme throughout. The store has supplied locally filmed television series and has been described as an institution and a landmark.