Animals have been used in the media for many years as they catch the eye of the viewer.
Animals which are used in advertisements usually don’t have any or much relevance to the products being advertised. An example of this is the adverts for Dulux Paint, which uses an Old English Sheep dog in their adverts. They have used this breed of dog in their adverts since 1961 because this breed of dog has been used for so many years people associate it with the Dulux Company. The adverts catch people’s attention and as the dog has no relevance to paint products and therefore people will discuss the adverts. Another example of animals having no relevance to the product in which they are being advertised is the Andrex adverts, they use Labrador puppies in their adverts for toilet paper. When the adverts first came out, Golden Labrador puppies became extremely in demand. However some of the people who were buying the puppies had done little to no research about the dog. The appeal of owning a Labrador was having a small, cute dog. However many owners didn’t realise the size that they would grow to, many owners then re-homed them as they grew larger.
However, there are exceptions to this where the animals are relevant to the product being advertised. These adverts are usually for pet products and rescue centres. Recue centres use abandoned looking animals in their adverts, which is an emotive technique. Another example of animals being used relevantly in adverts is pet products, such as Iam’s or Pedigree. They show the animals which the product is for. They use cute animals which the public find appealing.
Many adverts portray animals inaccurately; this causes people to believe that the images which are shown are a true reflection of the animal, as they have little or no knowledge of how the animal behaves. This may result in people potentially buying dangerous pets. This can be harmful to the owner or the animal and can result in abandonment.