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They’re cute, they steal your socks, they ride your robot vacuum… and they’re back to help us remember to not believe everything we see online. The house hippo who stole our hearts in a public service announcement in 1999 has come back to Break the Fake in a new campaign from MediaSmarts, Canada’s centre for digital and media literacy. The House Hippo also became a beloved icon of Canadian culture, with many people still fondly remembering the commercials today. The House Hippo has been referenced in popular culture, and it has even inspired fan art and merchandise. The House Hippo is a reminder of a simpler time in Canadian culture and a symbol of the power of creativity and responsible advertising. The House Hippo quickly became a beloved icon of Canadian culture, with many people still fondly remembering the commercials today.
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The House Hippo also had a significant impact on the advertising industry. The commercials were praised for their creativity and effectiveness, and they won numerous awards, including a Gold Lion at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The House Hippo set a new standard for responsible advertising to children and inspired other organizations to create similar campaigns.
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La La Land has stood the test of time, remaining a hub for aspiring creators and dreamers to live among like-minded individuals while they chase their dreams. “Canadians see the house hippo,” she said in a repost of Thomas’ original post. If you’re craving Canadian nostalgia, here’s the whole commercial to remind you. I grew up in the United Kingdom, so I had never seen this tiny domesticated hippopotamus. Hill noted that the house hippo is something that all Canadians can rally behind. "I have not met a single person who knows the house hippo and who isn't thrilled about it," she said.
House Hippos, then and now

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Hippo Restaurants in Highland Park, Los Angeles.
Posted: Tue, 09 Nov 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Those tiny hippos in your house? They’re back to teach us about ‘fake news’
The Canadian house hippo commercial has gained a cult following over the years, with thousands of people across the country still paying tribute to the mythical house pet that appeared on our screens in 1999. Twenty years after the House Hippo debuted on television screens, it would return once again to focus on media literacy and questioning what is shared on social media, specifically, Facebook. They’re small creatures - only about the size of a hamster, and chances most Canadians have one living in their household and don’t even know it. They’re nocturnal and make their nests in bedroom closets using lost mittens, dryer lint, bits of string and anything soft really, as they sleep around 16 hours a day. Two decades ago, the Concerned Children's Advertisers created a fake infomercial about the fictional critters in order to raise awareness about the importance of media literacy. In 1999, the Canadian House Hippo ad captured the hearts of viewers with its clever message about critical thinking and media literacy.
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And like 1/5th of Canadians, I wasn’t born here, and missed a lot of the traditional Canadian upbringing. "It's playful and it's cute and magical. And I think it speaks to the children in all of us." But as technology has evolved since 1999, so too has the house hippo. "We found pockets of communities all over the country — from all kinds of different age groups as well, and different backgrounds — who were still reminiscing about the hippo," said MediaSmarts executive director Kathryn Ann Hill. The house hippo came back in 2019, thanks to MediaSmarts, and even recently showed up as the star of an April Fools’ Day joke along with the Canadian Museum of Nature.
It describes the House Hippo as being found across Canada and in parts of the eastern United States, while showing the creature in a typical Canadian home. "There's misinformation, false information, accusations of fake news that may be true or not true," said Hill. "And so we think the house hippo is more important than ever, and that's why we brought them back." To create the House Hippo, the advertising team filmed real hippos and then used forced perspective to make them appear tiny enough to fit in a Canadian home. The team also used animatronics and puppetry to create the close-up shots of the House Hippo. The result was a convincing and adorable creature that captured the hearts of Canadians.
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The average cost of home insurance in Los Angeles is $1,240 — putting the rate above the California home insurance average of $1,133 and just above the national average of $1,200. While that may seem steep, Los Angelenos are purchasing a home in the center of the U.S. film industry, steps away from the Pacific coast and home to many cultural icons. Also, consider that those who reside in California seem to love it, making the Golden State one that residents are least likely to move away from. Cleared out every closet looking for one…mom was not impressed,” said another. The North American house hippo — the legendary creature that stole the hearts of Canadians in the ’90s — seems to have resurfaced in the form of a potato. Hill believes that the house hippo still resonates with most Canadians today — and in some ways, the hippo's message has never been so relevant.
"The hippo was just the funniest animal we could think of, and yet somehow the most plausible. A giraffe or moose just seemed too fake somehow." Well, it was a mash-up of Canadian wildlife commercials and a lightning bolt moment, according to Siobhan Dempsey, one of the writers behind the original PSA. Two teams, one from New Jersey, and one from Montreal met on a beautiful spring day in New Jersey in 1946 to open their baseball season...
Most recently, the house hippo was revived in a 2019 ad by Ontari0-based MediaSmarts that warns modern audiences about the dangers of misinformation on the internet. It's inspired t-shirts, the name of a band and even an urban dictionary page. With Canadians seeing the House Hippo as a nostalgic piece of Canadiana, the choice was made to use the hippo again to remind Canadians to question what they see not only on television but the internet. A new commercial was also created, mimicking the format and tone of the previous commercial from 1999. In May of 1999, a commercial would debut on Canadian television that against all odds, would become part of the Canadian consciousness. The commercial, which was produced by Concerned Children’s Advertisers, would bring introduce the idea of a House Hippo to Canadian culture.

If you’re curious and want to learn more about this domestic night dweller, you can watch this video for more information. As Canadians enjoy unprecedented access to information through our internet-connected devices, Hill believes the need for media literacy is more essential than ever. "We might be wondering why we're using so much data overnight when we're in bed sleeping and it turns out that hippos, like us, love to use our devices at night and play games, surf the net, check things out online," said Hill. As in the original, the creatures are still stealing socks and annoying Canadian pets.
Having open conversations with our kids about what everyone is seeing online can help, but it’s not just our children who are being duped. We need to be mindful of what we consume and the sources of our information. And while the house hippo is a good reminder not to trust everything we see, we also need to learn – and to teach our kids – how to identify information that is true and sources that can be trusted. Or at least, that’s what we were told years ago as part of a Concerned Children's Advertisers campaign to help kids think critically about what they were seeing on TV. The House Hippo commercials first aired in 1999 and were an instant hit. The commercials featured footage of real hippos, which were then edited to make them appear tiny enough to fit in a Canadian home.
In a world where fake news and misinformation are rampant, the House Hippo’s message is more important than ever. The House Hippo may have been a fictional creature, but its impact on Canadian culture and the advertising industry is very real. The original 1999 commercial was designed to teach children about fake news (because, much to everyone's chagrin, house hippos aren't actually a thing), but the adorable little pet has since taken on a life of its own. The House Hippo may have only appeared in a few commercials, but its impact on Canadian culture and the advertising industry is still felt today. The House Hippo set a new standard for responsible advertising to children, and it inspired other organizations to create similar campaigns.
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"Manipulating content has existed since media was created," she said. "What's different for us now is the volume and speed. We just have to post something online." Hill added that Canadians always get excited when she brings up the house hippo. Hill credits Canadians' fascination with the house hippo to a mixture of childhood nostalgia and an ongoing obsession with cute, miniature things (hello, teacup pigs). "It was a labour of love to get it made for almost nothing, and we loved it personally, but we had no idea it would be so beloved." She added that they never expected the house hippo to become a Canadian icon.
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