Having one of those deep-and-meaningful-thought sessions
this morning (okay, so I was standing at the kitchen bench,
half asleep, eating a bowl of cereal...) Best be warned
this post may become rambly and draw no useful conclusion
from this, but feel free to add your bit...
Cute little anthro characters seem to be accepted as
mascots for our sports teams, breakfast cereal and recently
asthma awareness (Wheezy Dragon - cuddly looking purple
fellow...) They seem to cross the borders to represent
things that either 'seem wrong' to associate with a person
stereo type (so they generate a new one instead).
Eg, Buzly Bee and his honey association (being on the Honey
Wheats box). But how would they portray this if they were
to use a human character? Farmer Jones doesn't have a
honey association, though for some reason we may draw a
link between Farmer Jones and wheat. Then again, King
Willie Wheaties is an anthro grain of wheat, probably
answering my question in this regard. If you were using a
HUMAN character, would you choose Farmer Jones to be a
young white male? How about an older man with a beard? Or
maybe a black man? With a white beard? Or maybe Farmer
Jones could be a woman? On this thought train (that seems
to be lacking a caboose) why wasn't it Queen Wheaties?
Then again, think of a girl's name that starts with W that
kids can pronounce (the target audience, for sure!) and
goes with Wheat... On a lateral, why wasn't a red or
yellow human? So I suppose I've answered my own question -
an anthro piece of wheat has wider appeal and doesn't
stereotype the cereal as being for a certain niche of the
market, though I am sure someone can read something into
it... >_<
Considering applications for product endorsement from our
favourite characters, I suspect prejudice of stereotype is
likely to reduce their application. But having said this,
there is a 'trendy' clothes shop (ie, overpriced 'home boy'
clothes that you can get cheaper at K-mart etc) a few
blocks away that calls itself Skunkwear and has a fairly
cool male anthro skunk as its logo.
Somehow home-boys may not care if they have a 'stinky'
image, but the I can't think of another application for the
skunks. Deodorant is not likely to work, unless used in a
derogatory way - "Don't smell like a skunk, use XYZ
deodorant..." I suspect only people on this group have
other associations that have pleasant connotations for
skunks...
Even though Des the chameleon may be good for hair care
products, it isn't something normal people have an
association with neither. Though having said this, what DO
you generally associate chameleons with other than changing
colour? New hair dye products? Possible, maybe...
So where am I going with this? JMH isn't going to get a
big commission doing product promos any time soon? We
seem, as a society to tolerate the use of anthro creatures
to illustrate something with a stereotype without bringing
in the prejudices associate with a possibly related human
stereo type. *shrugs* Okay, so what? Until computer game
manufacturers get systems we can VR around in, we are
unlikely much development in our chances of 'meeting a
furry' except in cute promos and cartoons, since the
genetics issue is still generally a sore point and the
equalitarian mob are unlikely to support the creation of a
'sub-species' as a working class (can't blame them), so no
likely furry creatures going to appear from that strain.
Though some of those freakers out there who are getting
massive amounts of cosmetic surgery (note that it is
COSMETIC) to try and look like their favourite animals, but
aren't going to kick of a new (or even compatable) species
any time soon.
Hint - don't stay up till 1am watching Tank Girl on TV,
even if it does have anthro kangaroos in it, if you have to
get up again at 6am....
Scrapper, Black Dragon, who'll be quiet now... >_<
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
Received on Mon Aug 04 2003 - 19:58:22 CDT