Editing Creature Comforts (section)

==Advertisements==
In 1990, Nick Park worked with Phil Rylance and [[Paul Cardwell]] to develop a series of British [[television advertisement]]s for the [[electricity board]]s' "Heat Electric" campaign. The creative team of advertising agency GGK had seen the original ''Creature Comforts'' film and were hugely impressed by it.

They were convinced that a series of short films modeled on the original film would be ideally suited to television advertising – as long as the advertising was handled with sufficient sensitivity to preserve the integrity and charm of Park's work. The initial result of their collaboration was three thirty-seconds ''Creature Comforts'' advertisements, made in the same style as the original film. This led to a series.

Although there had been a tradition of ''vox pop'' advertisements going back to the soap powder adverts of the 1960s, the ''Creature Comforts'' series was distinctive in its juxtaposition of real-life dialogue and animated creatures. The series featured a variety of endearing plasticine animals, including a tortoise, a cat, a family of penguins and a Brazilian parrot. The characters were seen in their own domestic settings, chatting to an unseen interviewer behind a large microphone.

The characters' dialogue was obtained by taking tape recordings of everyday people talking about the comfort and benefits of the electrical appliances in their homes and then using extracts of these – complete with pauses, false starts, repetitions, hesitations and unscripted{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} use of language (such as "easily turn off and on able"). The selected interviewees spoke in a range of down-to-earth regional accents, and the overall effect was of natural conversation.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Language of Everyday Life : An Introduction| last=Delin| first=Judy|author-link=Judy Delin| year=2000| page=138| publisher=Sage Publications| isbn=0-7619-6090-2}}</ref> The adverts' warm and cosy tone reflected the warmth and homeliness of central heating.

There was a certain charm about the animations, with their quirky humour and sharpness of observation – such as in the antics of the non-speaking characters and in the odd little things happening in the background. The animations had an unusual expressiveness, with the wit often coming from tiny nuances – such as a dog scratching his ear at a particular moment.

The characterisation was strengthened by having each voice carefully matched to a suitable animal in a combination that would produce a memorable impact. These features were rounded off by a gentle closing voiceover spoken by [[Johnny Morris (television presenter)|Johnny Morris]]. Morris appealed especially to older audiences, who would remember him and his animal conversations on the television programme ''[[Animal Magic (TV series)|Animal Magic]]''.

The campaign was a great success<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/sep/16/awardsandprizes.oscars2006 |title=Lock up your vegetables! |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=16 September 2005 |author=Stuart Jeffries |access-date=26 April 2009 | location=London}}</ref> and its run was extended over three years. The advertisements received critical acclaim within the advertising industry – with Park, Rylance and Cardwell picking up many top creative awards in Europe and America, including "Best Commercial of the Year" in the 1991 British Television Advertising Awards and "Most Outstanding European Campaign" in the 1991 D&AD Europe Awards. In fact, ''Creature Comforts'' was subsequently voted by media professionals (in leading trade outlets ''Marketing'' and ''Brand Republic'') as one of the top television advertisements of the last fifty years.<ref>
{{Cite web |date=2005-09-21 |title=50 Years of Fame: Top 20 TV ads |url=https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/50-years-fame-top-20-tv-ads/518127 |access-date=2010-08-01 |website=www.campaignlive.co.uk |language=en}}</ref>

As well as attaining a very high level of viewer recall, the advertisements were much loved – particularly the ones involving Frank (the tortoise), Carol (the cat) and Pablo (the parrot). In awarding them a place in ''The 100 best British ads of the century'', the United Kingdom's leading advertising journal ''[[Campaign (magazine)|Campaign]]'' commented "The power of a campaign which can make consumers feel warm towards a utility cannot be underestimated".<ref>{{cite book | title=Campaign's hall of fame : The 100 best British ads of the century| last=Campaign| year=1999| page=86| publisher=Haymarket Publications}}</ref>

The many popular awards won by the ''Creature Comforts'' advertisements included being voted fourth in the all time ''100 Greatest TV Ads'' by readers of ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' and viewers of [[Channel 4]] in April 2000.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-02-23 |title=Top 100 Greatest TV Adverts |url=http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-100-greatest-tv-adverts/articles/results |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091228220039/http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-100-greatest-tv-adverts/articles/results |archive-date=2009-12-28 |website=[[Channel 4]]}}</ref> Their position among the classic advertisements of British television was confirmed when ''Creature Comforts'' was voted fourth in ''ITV's Best Ever Adverts'' by viewers of [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]] in 2005.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-05-05 |title=Classic Ads - Spots and Spot Innovation |url=http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.943 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305130459/http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.943 |archive-date=2009-03-05 |access-date= |website=thinkbox.tv |language=en}}</ref> Finally, in a [[YouGov]] survey during 2006, ''Creature Comforts'' topped the list of the United Kingdom's alltime favourite animated or puppet characters used in adverts.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Park |first=Nick |date=2007-01-02 |title=Creature Comforts 'best ad characters' |url=http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/31193-creature-comforts-best-ad-characters |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111032016/http://www.metro.co.uk/showbiz/31193-creature-comforts-best-ad-characters |archive-date=2010-01-11 |website=[[Metro.co.uk]]}}</ref>

The ''Creature Comforts'' advertisements have now attained a place in popular culture, and are probably better remembered than the original film that spawned them.<ref>{{cite book | title=Creating Creature Comforts| last=Lane| first=Andy| year=2003| page=72| publisher=Boxtree| isbn=0-7522-1564-7}}</ref> However, it is claimed that many members of the public mistakenly remember the commercials as advertising gas heating, the main competitor to electricity.<ref>{{cite web |author=Jeffries |first=Stuart |date=16 September 2005 |title=Lock up your vegetables! |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2005/sep/16/awardsandprizes.oscars2006 |access-date=26 April 2009 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

===Influences===
The ''Creature Comforts'' advertisements were produced in the period 1990 to 1992 and in some ways they were indicative of the shape of things to come in British television advertising. Many commentators believe that there was a fundamental shift in television advertising from the unbridled consumerism and egoism of the 1980s to what is sometimes termed a more "caring" approach in the 1990s. The ''Creature Comforts'' advertisements are cited as an early example of this phenomenon.<ref>{{cite book | title=British television advertising : cultural identity and communication | last=Dickason| first=Renée| year=2005| page=92| publisher=University of Luton Press| isbn=1-86020-571-2}}</ref>

The format of the ''Creature Comforts'' advertisements was so successful that it was replicated in other campaigns in the following decades. In later years, however, members of the public became increasingly conscious of the potential uses of their ''vox pop'' interviews.<ref>{{cite book| title=Cracking animation : the Aardman book of 3-D animation| last1=Lord| first1=Peter| last2=Sibley| first2=Brian| year=1998| publisher=Thames & Hudson| isbn=0-500-01881-2| url-access=registration| url=https://archive.org/details/crackinganimatio0000lord}}</ref> This made it difficult to recapture the spontaneity and innocence of the early ''Creature Comforts'' advertisements. Although lookalike animations became relatively commonplace in television advertisements, they were usually scripted and rarely possessed the painstaking attention to detail of the original advertisements.{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}}

===Credits===
* Director: [[Nick Park]]
* Creative Director: Nick Fordham
* Art Directors: Phil Rylance, Newy Brothwell
* Writers: [[Paul Cardwell]], Kim Durdant-Hollamby