House Hippos

Every once in awhile I contemplate the realism of house hippos.

I know I shouldn't. I remember watching the commercial thinking it couldn't be true. But I was still contemplating "could it be true?" during the middle of the commercial. I know the commercial blatantly told me by the end that house hippos were not real. But I still thought about it a lot.

It was the first time I can remember being duped by TV. Well I should say knowingly duped. Watching the house hippo commercial was the first time that the idea that a commercial that seemed like a documentary could be lying to me.

So why was I duped? I'm putting it down to the fact that the commercial was set up like a documentary. It had the sappy music. I calm yet boring announcer. There was use of real animal footage. The big reason I didn't catch on was the fact that i was the demographic they were trying to protect. I was a little kid. I had no reason to question what i was seeing. I had no idea you could cut and replace pictures in videos with computers.

Concerned Children's Advertisers did a fantastic job getting peoples attention with that ad. I think many people still remember it. Parents took more care to explain what non truths were displayed on TV and children took more care to question it, It is important to remind people that what they see is not always true. Its also important to show them that deceit comes in different forms.

If the house hippo commercial hadn't been so successful many people like myself might not have had the wake up call that TV is not an accredited source. It told people to think about  and talk about what they are watching.

For those who would like to see the video you can find it here on youtube. 
  
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