I was sent an email by a BHPS member (thanks Mike) wondering whether I had seen the car tyre advert that features a hedgehog … strangely it had passed me by, so I went looking for it – and found that the exceptionally inappropriate pairing of hedgehogs and cars is something that has gone on for a while.
My quest was for this one from Continental; but before I found it I had stumbled upon this one for GoodYear. So I wondered what else was out there – and quickly found Mercedes had been at it too. Frustratingly, there is an advert I have seen featuring a hedgehogs hitching a lift in a car, but I cannot find it now …. I think it was from South Africa …
But what gets me all hot and bothered is the fact that, while there is obviously a joke to be had at the expense of the hedgehog/car relationship, it is also a really serious problem – even more than the pain and suffering – the way that the roads and our cars fragment the landscape is at the heart of the massive decline in hedgehog numbers being seen around the UK.
On a lighter note, as I was looking for car adverts, I found a whole bunch more … I had no idea quite how far the hedgehog had gone in its quest to sell us things we probably don’t need. The have been used to try and sell sponges (this video has almost adult content, you have been warned); I have written before about shoes and banks; unsurprisingly, they have been used to sell hedgehogs; Cadburys originally used a hedgehog as opposed to a gorilla, think that the hedgehog was better; BT Broadband … they might use hedgehogs, but I prefer the PhoneCoop. There are so many, will stop there. But please, pass on to me any more that you find. I might have to start a campaign featuring the hedgehog as the nemesis for mindless consumerism … and another one to try and get the European hedgehog featured a little more often!
And just to conclude – where would we be without the wonderful road safety adverts … and where would we be without the evil sick minds who made this! (I know this will offend some people … but I think it actually makes the point a bit better than the cutesy story line of the unmolested version).