My six new TV spots

[Paul Fierlinger]

They are in our gallery slot: Paul and Sandra Fierlinger.
This is something new for us because it is the first time I had to draw someone else's cartoons. In this case it is the art of Patrick McDonnell, of the "Mutts" cartoon strip and books. These are six Shelter Stories, PSA's (Public Service Announcements) urging people to adopt their pets rather than buy them from breeders. Our specific assignment was to communicate that shelter animals are normal, healthy pets that have ended up in shelters due to unhappy circumstances of their owners, rather than coming from cruel treatment, and that they often make the best pets.

All the stories are lifted off of Patrick's strips, which heavily relied on written word, sometimes comprising of three panels of the same talking head. It was up to us to give the theme a background story. Patrick was a very generous collaborator, not insisting that we stay 100% on model, which would have been often difficult anyway because his cartoons often don't even have legs. He also wanted me to employ close to real animal locomotion so we agreed that in some instances my drawings might drop out of model completely, only to return to model whenever the action would stop.

The music and sfx is by Shay Lynch, the stories are written by Patrick and Sandra and me (mostly Patrick & Sandra, actually). Sandra also did the kitten's voices and the other two voices are read by two people in our neighborhood. The Agency is the Advertising Council and the client the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). The spots haven't been aired yet; actually I haven't even quite delivered them because I'm waiting for the address where to send them.

By the way, these spots hold a record for me; this is the very first time in my long career that a client has accepted delivery of my work without requesting a single change!

[Sewie]

The spots haven't been aired yet; actually I haven't even quite delivered them because I'm waiting for the address where to send them.

So we are not allowed to see them yet ?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Oh no, they have been uploaded here:
http://www.tvpaint.com/v2/content/artic ... Fierlinger" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I just thought it would be better to enter the gallery through the front door.

[Sewie]

Ah Thanks. I think they are lovely!
Real, real nice! (and funny)

(and cute!)

[malcooning]

These are great Paul.
Your thin line style meets McDonnell's ink peacefully.
The non-banal character of the animals fits the endearing theme well.
And the pace is right. Kinda shelter pace.
Do animal shelters in the states have funds for a properly animated ads?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Do animal shelters in the states have funds for a properly animated ads?

Or do some animators in the States feel charitable towards animal shelters? It's somewhere between the two. I can't complain and they certainly got their money's worth. The money comes from charitable foundations left in the wills of the wealthy deceased, but a word of caution: when eccentric billionaires leave billions for animals, animalistic lawyers prevent the shelters from getting much of it at all -- sometimes nothing. The lesson here is, if you have billions and plan on leaving most of it to animal shelters, spread it around into concrete foundations and targets; show that you mean it.

TV commercials such as these are shown mostly (perhaps exclusively) on cable channels, which I think shows that they are paid-for slots. So it's nice to know that they will be seen. I've made PSA's for charitable air time which haven't been shown once (for instance the veteran's spot) which speaks volumes about on-air TV companies and the previous government that relaxed its regulations (meaning stopped enforcing what the government before them ruled upon) and which used to pressure TV studios into donating some of their air time to charity.

Anything above 30 seconds doesn't have a chance. Our first veteran's spot was thirty seconds and brought in a lot of donations (in the hundreds of thousands). It was so successful that the veterans association paid me for a full minute the next time, against my warnings, and it truly never got shown. Greed doesn't work in charity.

[Sierra Rose]

I had to go to Windows IE to see them, for some reason Mozilla just would not open them???

I love them so much...especially the last 3. They bring out the deep feelings we have about rescued dogs, well all dogs.

We rescued Buckley last year and couldn't have found a better dog, better match. We saw another one that looked just like him last week and brought him home to be a brother dog. But he was such a mean little sucker, we had to return him the next day.

Buckley is so very sweet and friendly, quiet and mellow---so relaxed in the universe, he just didn't get it. He kept inviting Doyle to play even though Doyle kept biting him. But now we have a credit at the shelter and we will keep trying to find a good match. Thanks for your work on behalf of our dog population, all of you.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Sierra, you need this FireFox Add-on to view files that can be normally opened only by IE: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/35/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
All shelters have different rules; some (regrettably, I believe) won't allow anyone who doesn't have a yard adopt a dog. It's all an emotions charged subject and that's probably why a bit of sappiness in advertising never hurts.

[Svengali]

Love these Paul. While the message is the similar, their tone and tender humor beat the maudlin sarah mclachlan ads, hands down.

Sven

[Paul Fierlinger]

Love these Paul. While the message is the similar, their tone and tender humor beat the maudlin sarah mclachlan ads, hands down.

Sven

Thanks, Sven. For those out of States: that was a weepy, folk singer spot -- maybe 90 seconds long, showing to the accompaniment of a sad,sad song endless images of sad, sad dogs and cats, often trembling behind the bars of their cages and just in unbearable to watch deprivation of body and spirit. Few people could stand watching it to the end, it was so well done and apparently HSUS collected over 3 million dollars in the first few weeks of airing across all of cable TV.

But there was a big problem with that spot; it opened a few large purses but it brought no one to the shelters to pick a pet. HSUS decided to go for animation to correct this and that is how I got into the picture. Now the effectiveness of our spots will be tested by the rising count of new adopters they will generate, not so much in the amount of donations the shelters might collect.

There are other live action spots running currently that say; Don't feel sorry for them -- Adopt one! There's a fine line between sappiness and happiness, and I think Patrick McDonnell knows exactly where to draw that line.

[Animark]

Nice spots, I like "Jaz" at most ... and than "Shemp".

[Sierra Rose]

Thanks Paul for the plug-in link....now I can get them directly in Mozilla.

We don't have much of a yard but we do take Buckley for a 3 mile hike in the woods nearly every day --even in the rain. And he meets his dog buddy for a romp in a nearby park before dinner every evening. After so many years with a little old lady dog, 16 year old Tinkerbell, we have changed our daily pattern to accommodate this young, athletic guy. Hasn't hurt our health any either.

There are a lot of other ways to get dogs than from shelters...but we have had wonderful luck in going through them! (mostly)

[oyonawa]

Wonderful!!!
Congratulations
They are great.

[CartoonMonkey]

Beautiful work Paul.
Inspiring for people like myself who make their strange living through drawing animated films.

[Rik Jurriaans]

Paul, great stuff man.
I especially love the homeless vets commercial!(I've never checkt your gallery before, what a lost).

Rik