dogs

DEAD WRONG?

Running shoes so advanced they could kill your dog? A 2013 advertising campaign ran in Canada that implied just that. Pearl Izumi, sponsor of the message, found that tails weren’t wagging but fingers were — the campaign was pulled after serious backlash. The company apologized profusely and published an informative video on how to protect your pet from exhaustion. Proof that when a team of marketers treats the death of an animal as a joke, it makes a statement, though perhaps not the one intended.

PEARL IZUMI dead dog

 

IT’S A DOG’S (REALLY VIOLENT) LIFE

 

 

In their new video Pitbull Terrier, members of South Africa’s rap/rave phenomenon Die Antwoord take the shape of animals to portray male/female stereotypes of sex and violence.

The video and lyrics leverage the pitbull, the ultimate animal ‘brand’ symbol of power and rage among adherents of machismo urban culture.

In a world populated by human/animal hybrids, the lead dog in the video howls, “I’m an animal, love me, I kill you”, as he engages in a spree of brutal acts. Lines become blurred: is this a man acting like a ‘savage’ dog, or a dog acting like a savage man?

You may not like this clip (it’s gory and NSFW), but nearly 12 million pairs of eyeballs on YouTube have voted otherwise since its debut in May, 2014.