Scholarly record

ANTHROPOMORPHIC BRAND PRESENTERS: THE HOG AND THE STAG IN ROMANIAN ADVERTISING

Mariana Cernicova-Buca

Abstract

Anthropomorphic animals are widely used in product branding, in some cases with obvious nostalgia for totemic figures and sacred symbolism, in other – merely as mascots. Literature review shows that speaking animals are quite effective in branding strategies and with the spread of social media, such animals tweet, sing and spread messages over social networks. The paper has three purposes: 1. to describe how animals are used as brand ambassadors; 2. to examine practices in Romanian advertising, with a special attention to the hog and the stag, some of the most successful original figures in domestic branding; 3. to identify future research directions in national advertising, where brands do not transcend or appear not to have the ambition to cross the borders of a given culture. The hog and the stag trace back to Romanian mythology, sliding into humor and into the postmodern culture, where they bear the multiple layers of meaning. The methods used for this study are content analysis of the Facebook and YouTube channels of the two brands, combined with a survey on internet users’ perceptions on the communication strategies adopted by the anthropomorphic hog and stag.

Publication details

Back to publication list