Why an old commercial for a house hippo still fascinates Canadians today
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"I have not met a single person who knows the house hippo and who isn't thrilled about it," she said. "The hippo was just the funniest animal we could think of, and yet somehow the most plausible. A giraffe or moose just seemed too fake somehow." Well, it was a mash-up of Canadian wildlife commercials and a lightning bolt moment, according to Siobhan Dempsey, one of the writers behind the original PSA. The house hippo came back in 2019, thanks to MediaSmarts, and even recently showed up as the star of an April Fools’ Day joke along with the Canadian Museum of Nature.
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"It didn't receive a ton of attention at the time, it didn't win industry accolades and it didn't make us famous. It's only now that the kids who saw that ad are online and in advertising that we're getting the impact of it." All of it pays homage to the original public broadcast, which shows the sweet little hippo scavenging for crumbs of peanut butter toast and running away from a house cat. It was amazing to watch that as the caretaker grabbed a handful of veggies, the mama hippo opened her mouth wide to receive the food. They are incredibly shy, so unless they’re really craving PB toast crumbs, or you’re up in the middle of the night, you’ll likely go your whole life without ever seeing one. They are generally pretty timid, but they will protect themselves if provoked by you pet cat or dog, or whatever else is lurking in your house at night.
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Twenty years after the House Hippo debuted on television screens, it would return once again to focus on media literacy and questioning what is shared on social media, specifically, Facebook. "There's something about them that's cute. It's the idea of taking this giant, enormous creature and turning it into something really cute and small." Today, the House Hippo may not be as prominent as it once was, but it still holds a special place in the hearts of Canadians. The House Hippo is a nostalgic reminder of a simpler time in Canadian culture and a symbol of the power of creativity and responsible advertising. To create the House Hippo, the advertising team filmed real hippos and then used forced perspective to make them appear tiny enough to fit in a Canadian home.
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Non-members can add the privileges at checkout through our 30 day free trial, cancellable at anytime. In February, my kids and I got to experience the Los Angeles Zoo’s new behind the scenes Hippo Encounter. Here we got some of our most pequilar questions about hippopotamuses answered by the hippo’s care takers and staff.
The House Hippo also became a beloved icon of Canadian culture, with many people still fondly remembering the commercials today. The House Hippo has been referenced in popular culture, and it has even inspired fan art and merchandise. The House Hippo is a reminder of a simpler time in Canadian culture and a symbol of the power of creativity and responsible advertising.
House Hippos, then and now
They’re cute, they steal your socks, they ride your robot vacuum… and they’re back to help us remember to not believe everything we see online. The house hippo who stole our hearts in a public service announcement in 1999 has come back to Break the Fake in a new campaign from MediaSmarts, Canada’s centre for digital and media literacy. Though the attempt was admirable, the commercial may have backfired with younger viewers who started to think house hippos were actually existed. To this day, many of them remain to be loyal believers of the house hippo, and still cling to the hope that they'll one day run into one of them foraging for crumbs of peanut butter toast or nesting in a pile of lost mittens.
The North American house hippo is back — and ready to tackle fake news
You can even by hand-made House Hippos, house hippo art prints, t-shirts and much more. In May of 1999, a commercial would debut on Canadian television that against all odds, would become part of the Canadian consciousness. The commercial, which was produced by Concerned Children’s Advertisers, would bring introduce the idea of a House Hippo to Canadian culture. Hill noted that the house hippo is something that all Canadians can rally behind.
The House Hippo quickly became a beloved icon of Canadian culture, with many people still fondly remembering the commercials today. The House Hippo was cute, funny, and relatable, and it resonated with Canadians of all ages. The House Hippo was also successful in achieving its goal of promoting critical thinking among children. The CCA reported that after the House Hippo commercials aired, there was a significant increase in the number of children who questioned the advertisements they saw on television. In today’s digital world, we all have a responsibility to make sure something's true before we share it online.
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The team also used animatronics and puppetry to create the close-up shots of the House Hippo. The result was a convincing and adorable creature that captured the hearts of Canadians. These quick quizzes will help you start to learn how to spot suspicious posts. The Animals Quiz is great for getting kids to start thinking about misinformation.
But what happens when it feels like we live in an age where everything is like the house hippo? Misinformation is running rampant online, and with the advancements of AI, images and text can be faked. The one minute long commercial, which was the subject of a television public service announcement, was produced in the style of Hinterland Who’s Who, the Canadian educational series that ran in the 1960s and 1970s. It describes the House Hippo as being found across Canada and in parts of the eastern United States, while showing the creature in a typical Canadian home.
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Break the Fake, a campaign launching October 1st, is bringing the hippo back to encourage people of all ages to check information they see online. The house hippo was a part of many of our childhoods (if you are a certain age). Now, it’s bringing awareness to #BreakTheFake and teach kids about digital media literacy. Or at least, that’s what we were told years ago as part of a Concerned Children's Advertisers campaign to help kids think critically about what they were seeing on TV. The House Hippo was created by the advertising agency, John St., for the Concerned Children’s Advertisers (CCA), a non-profit organization that aims to promote responsible advertising to children. The CCA wanted to create a campaign that would encourage children to be more critical of the advertising they saw on television and to understand that not everything they saw was real.
The House Hippo also serves as a reminder to question what we see and to be critical of the media we consume. In a world where fake news and misinformation are rampant, the House Hippo’s message is more important than ever. The House Hippo may have been a fictional creature, but its impact on Canadian culture and the advertising industry is very real. The original 1999 commercial was designed to teach children about fake news (because, much to everyone's chagrin, house hippos aren't actually a thing), but the adorable little pet has since taken on a life of its own. The House Hippo may have only appeared in a few commercials, but its impact on Canadian culture and the advertising industry is still felt today. The House Hippo set a new standard for responsible advertising to children, and it inspired other organizations to create similar campaigns.
She added that they never expected the house hippo to become a Canadian icon. Most recently, the house hippo was revived in a 2019 ad by Ontari0-based MediaSmarts that warns modern audiences about the dangers of misinformation on the internet. It's inspired t-shirts, the name of a band and even an urban dictionary page. I don’t feel as though it’s getting better or easier to navigate misinformation online.
As they’re shy, they wait for you to go to bed, then they venture out in search of food and water, and materials for their nests. Their favourite foods are chips, raisins and the crumbs from peanut butter on toast, and they sometimes make a rare appearance at breakfast for the chance to find their beloved peanut butter on toast crumbs. The original campaign was created to teach kids to think critically about what they see on TV, and the tiny hippo became a beloved Canadian symbol.
The message was simple - don't believe everything you see on television. MediaSmarts is launching the campaign ahead of Media Literacy Week (October 7-11), a national event that includes over a 100 media literacy activities across Canada. Canadians will also have access to free Break the Fake resources including a workshop, tip sheets, educational videos, lesson plans for teachers and more, for use during Media Literacy Week and beyond.
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