House Hippo

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The house hippo is the subject of a Canadian television public service announcement produced by Concerned Children's Advertisers. Their stated intent is to educate children about critical thinking with regard to what they see in television advertising, and to make children aware of how gullible they can be and to teach them to not believe everything they hear.

The narration of the piece is in the style of a Hinterland Who's Who spot, and goes as follows:

"It's night time in a kitchen just like yours; all is quiet, or is it?"

"The North American house hippo is found throughout Canada and the Eastern United States. House hippos are very timid creatures and they are rarely seen, but they will defend their territory if provoked. They come out at night to search for food, water, and materials for their nests."

"The favourite foods of the house hippo are chips, raisins and the crumbs from peanut butter on toast."

"They build their nests in bedroom closets using lost mittens, dryer lint and bits of string. The nests have to be very soft and warm; house hippos sleep about 16 hours a day."

That looked really real, but you knew it couldn't be true, didn't you? That's why it's good to think about what you're watching on TV, and ask questions, kind of like you just did.

A message from Concerned Children's Advertisers.

[edit] The setup

The house hippo in the commercial was a hippopotamus shot from probably 40-50 meters away from the camera with an additional far-out mode to make it fit like a mouse-sized hippopotamus. The hippo is later cut and pasted onto the backgrounds used in the commercial. The fake kitchen is shown dark with only a few background lights. The cat used for the kitchen scene was after bait but is later startled by a background noise (supposedly the growl of the hippo). In the closet scene, the hippo walking away from the camera is carefully pasted onto the image of the closet's front to make it like it is actually heading into the dark between the doors. Then finally in the closing scene with the nest, the yawning hippo is transformed into a silhouette, which is then cut, showing only the yawning head of the hippo while the bottom gap is covered with the fake nest.