Alien Species

My idle mind wandered to figure out why many American advertisements featuring animals were portrayed to be 'Unamerican', and mostly British! The lizard of Geico (more correctly the Madagascar Day Gecko) speaks flawless British accent, as does the elephant housewife in a commercial for one of the renowned room freshener brands. Then, there is an irritating bee in the Nasonex ad that speaks a totally confusing accent, probably originating from the Middle-east. Are the ad agencies stereotyping the animal species as being alien? I really don't see a reason, except to add a tinge of fascination to the whole animal concept.

Talking about animal ads, I hate the cheek of the 'Happy Cows' California Milk commercial that depict the Wisconsin cows to be shivering in the snow, looking to migrate to California. My 'Dairy State' of Wisconsin lost its No. 1 position in milk production to California in 1993, though it narrowly continues to be the No. 1 producer of cheese in the country. The New York Times report mentions about Wisconsin: 'Cheese is the state’s history, its pride, its self-deprecating, sometimes goofy, cheesehead approach to life.' Wisconsin boasts the nation’s only “Master Cheesemaker” certification, for its most accomplished veteran makers (there were 47 as of April 2006) and one of the earliest cheese-making education programs, at the University of Wisconsin.