The world of animated advertising can be a weird and confusing place. From triangle-playing cats to animated cartoon duets and children being stretched into monsters (that’s right, you heard us correctly) – animated adverts can be as weird as they are memorable.
With so many bizarre animations out there, we thought it was about time we rounded up some of the best, or maybe the worst, depending on which way you look at it and all revelled in their animated weirdness together. Prepare for a bizarre and bumpy ride.
1. Monster Munch ‘Stretch’
To kick things off in our top list of weird animated adverts, we’re starting strong, with the aforementioned child being stretched into a monster thing. Featuring animatronic arms, kids who spring into colourful creatures in an instant and a suitably spooky voice-over to match, it’s guaranteed to give you goosebumps (or, more likely, nightmares).
2. Confused.com Duet
Moving swiftly from cartoon monster kids to equally as weird, 2D cartoons – Confused.com’s animated duet never quite made it on to TV, but is still floating around on the internet for us to enjoy in our own time. Featuring the two unlikely sing stars of the brand and a whole host of potentially inappropriate duet situations, it gives ‘weird’ a whole new definition.
3. Laughing Cow Boyfriend Material
Jumping on the clean living trend whilst spoofing the gals from Sex and the City at the same time, Laughing Cow animated an unusual lunch date featuring four glam cows at a coffee shop. With a beefcake bull as the star, it’s not your usual cheese ad on TV. You’ll have to watch it yourself if you want to know more, we’re not sure what else to say.
4. Crusha Cows
From one animated advert featuring cows to another – although this time, the weirdness takes on a whole moo level. In cut out animation, Crusha’s ad hit our small screens back in 2003 – taking cute, flat cap wearing kittens, giving them a guy’s voice and then getting them to play musical instruments while bottles dropped on top of cartoon cows. Yeah, we know, it’s up there with the weirdest for sure.
5. Mio Energy Nose Job
With such a variety of animation styles to suit different narratives out there, you’d think there’d be fewer cartoon animals in our list. From Mio, the company who transforms your water into something resembling a squash, they put their own spin on cosmetic surgery, with two humanesque animals judging their rhino friend for her nose job.
6. Kit Kat Vending Machine
The last in our ‘official’ animation list much more resembles a Pixar short than it does an advert. With bizarre characters, a slightly surreal take on the everyday office scene and a space-age skyscraper, Kit Kat launched their animated ad to show the true power in taking a break. It’s pretty weird but also quite an enjoyable watch, as far as bizarre commissions go.
Bonus Round!
7. Jammy Dodger monkey
While this doesn’t quite make the cut, primarily because we’re almost certain it’s more an animatronic puppet than an animation, we thought we’d still throw it in here as a weird bonus film. From the masterminds at Jammy Dodger comes this musical piece – where a monkey biscuit croons away while a woman shreds a solo on the guitar. It’s also as weird as it sounds.
Animation leaves the advertising world open to a whole realm of possibilities and while in these cases, they’ve turned out a little weirder than most, it just goes to show if you can imagine it, you can create in animation. So, if you’re looking to create something equally bizarre, or have something far less weird in mind, get in touch and we’ll have a chat to see how we can make it happen!