Animation exploration

It intrigues us that characters on South Park, Family Guy, and The Simpsons can get away with saying and doing things that would get many shows drummed off the airwaves overnight.  Does animation just hit differently?

An article from Adweek suggests that might be the case.   

The article suggests that animated advertising can drive home emotions in a way that live actors sometimes can’t.  This may be especially true for social messaging, where animation seems to be especially popular.

You may recall the acclaimed “Dumb Ways to Die” campaign from Metro Trains Melbourne, which promoted rail safety and became ingrained in the culture via games, parodies, and its very catchy theme song – a serious message in a fun package.  

A partially animated ad for Alzheimer’s Research UK has proven significantly more emotionally impactful and attention-grabbing than ads with celebrity spokespeople speaking about the disease.  

The Chief Strategy Officer for the agency behind that ad says often people will dismiss cautionary ads with live actors because they tell themselves, “That isn’t me.”  But animation takes away that defense.  “Animation allows us to avoid that sort of psychological aversion and let people just sit with the fact that [Alzheimer’s] is very scary,” she says.

Animation also provides greater creative flexibility.  You can depict action in a way that you otherwise couldn’t.  A classic example is Lamisil’s use of Digger the Dermatophyte, which helped the brand transform perceptions of toenail fungus from a frivolous cosmetic condition to a more serious medical condition.  

In that vein, Adweek highlights the British mortgage lender Habito, which dramatizes the challenges of getting a mortgage with a series of animated spots showing homeowners getting disemboweled by giant hands and torn to shreds by werewolves.  [See the image at the top of this page.]

Animation isn’t used often in advertising, but maybe that is part of the magic, too. It stands out and therefore packs an extra emotional punch.  What do you think?