Mamíferos
Parmalat1996
Mamíferos is a 1996 television commercial for Parmalat, created by DM9DDB, São Paulo.
The line
Tomou?
Why it works
Three- and four-year-olds dressed as baby mammals play in front of the camera while an adult voice slowly sings "O elefante é fã de Parmalat" (the elephant is a Parmalat fan). The film ends with a toddler in a skunk suit asking another, dressed as a kitten, "Tomou?" ("Drunk it?"). Created at DM9DDB by Erh Ray and Nizan Guanaes, it was a way round Nestlé: as Guanaes tells it, mothers' hearts already belonged to the market leader, so Parmalat set out to win the children, borrowing the idea from an American photographer's pictures of children dressed as animals. It is studied as a commodity turned into a brand. Meio & Mensagem credits the films with cementing Parmalat's market leadership; they won awards including the Profissionais do Ano; and a follow-up promotion, in which barcodes plus a small payment bought one of 21 plush mammals, grew from a planned 300,000 toys to about 15 million. The same children came back as teenagers in a 2007 sequel.
Techniques
- Pathos Toddlers in baby-animal costumes playing before the camera make a commodity milk endearing, aimed squarely at winning children's affection.
- Mascots and characters The costumed little mammals become a recognisable cast, later collected as plush toys and brought back as teenagers in a sequel.
- Jingles and music A slow, sung line declaring that the elephant is a fan of the brand carries the name into memory.
Sources · 4
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