The language of Animals in advertisements - Reptiles

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Jonathan, Plantation House, Saint Helena

Animals in advertising – Snakes

Among the Reptiles, snakes are the second most popular group present in advertisements, together with chameleons.

For most copywriters snakes are first of all synonymous with trickery and seduction. They are also chosen because they are venomous, hiss, shed their skin, or swallow their prey whole.

There is often only a weak correlation with a characteristic of the animal.

first published: iii.2025

Nederlands

(1) 2000 – There are things you don't buy — credit card

Let's start with

a rather remarkable advertisement (1) by WWF Belgium. The conditions at that time were: for every transaction of 2000 BEF or more, the bank would donate 10 BEF (which is a maximum of 0.5%) to the WWF. As I already explained in [Illustration 3] an effort of more than 70 000 BEF (> 1750 Euro) translates to a meagre donation of 350 BEF (8.75 Euro), which was the yearly cost of the card. If there are many such cards in circulation, this could be a welcome source of income for WWF, but for the user of the card it is a bad investment. Even worse if we take into account that only transactions above a certain, at the time quite high, amount lead to a donation.

It would be better to donate the contribution for the card directly to WWF. WWF receives the same amount and the donor spends much less money.

A side aspect of this advertisement is that it encourages consumption. The user is stimulated to buy and spend larger amounts (because of the minimum) and also gets the message that this is a good thing, because the nature association benefits from it. The question remains whether the environment, nature or the climate will really benefit from this.

Finally, note the attempt at a little joke. There are things you don't buy with the WWF card, says the header, and we are shown a luxury snakeskin handbag. The snake is not presented for any particular characteristic or behavior, but as a victim of the luxury industry.

(2) 198? – Is pleasure a sin? — car

(3) 1987? – Be seduced — eau de toilette

The snake is a notorious trickster

from the Bible and some advertisements refer to it. This is very clear in № 2 where the car is depicted in a snake skin. In the text we find a snake with an apple. The title also alludes to the same story: Isss pleasssure a sssin?. The title is written in a playful way as an onomatopoeia of the hissing of a snake. I think it's well done. Too bad the first lines of the text seem so silly. Judge for yourself: If you don't want to indulge in pleasure, you'd better stop reading now. … No matter how far her [the car's] rivals twist themselves, this seductress is always too cunning † for them. … Her pointed snout and provocatively rounded backside will not leave even the strictest recluse unmoved. … (from Dutch).

We see more seduction in the next example. Be seduced (3) is for an eau de toilette for men and refers clearly to the story with the apple. Another brand, the fragance in № 12, comes also with a snake but I have no idea what the meaning of the snake there may be.

Snakes cannot be trusted, we are told in № 4. Can you trust a first impression? Not with animals. Even this adorable baby tree python turns into a ruthless constrictor, goes the text. And Likewise, a wrong choice of floppy disks can put a stranglehold on your automation. Those were the days: floppies!

So it is clear, for many copywriters snakes are first of all synonymous with trickery and seduction.

(4) 1993 – Trustworthy or misleading? — floppy disk

(5) 1990 – Remember the hiss? — audio cassette

But snakes can also serve

to illustrate other rather negative characteristics. In № 5, which dates from the time when the audio cassette was still popular, we see how the hissing of the snake is used to evoke the noise, the hiss, of a tape recording. The snake seems like a good choice to me, especially when we think of the infamous brown spaghetti tapes could produce. At the same time, the snake also provides a lighter tone to the advert in both image and text: So if you're using a chrome tape and still hear a hiss, you'd better check the room for snakes.

While in the previous example the snake is used to illustrate a bad characteristic without passing judgment on the snake itself, in № 6 the snake itself is the bad news. This software Gives You the Bad News … Before it Strikes! and the snake represents unpleasant news that you don't immediately see coming. This same product ran a similar advertisement about bad news lurking below the surface with a shark.

(6) 1996 – Get the bad news before it strikes — business software

(7) 1988 – Cancer destroying itself? — cancer treatment

In № 7 also the snake itself is the bad news: cancer. The image refers to the ouroburos which means snake devouring its own tail. It is an old symbol used in different cultures to denote different cyclical processes like death and rebirth, but also circular reasoning and vicious circles. The advert tells how a new therapy uses living, weakened cancer cells to stimulate a patient's natural resistance and also to detect and treat similar cancers in other patients. So the cancer cells are used against themselves: therefore ouroburos, regardless of whether snakes eat themselves or not.

The world's most toxic green

stalks the sharpest eye (8) features an African Bush Viper. The text then continues Silent and perfectly camouflaged and on this paper the slightest contrasts become visible. This kind of snake may be green, is venomous, and they can easily blend into their environment. So this must be the link. Not something that applies to snakes only. Other green animals could also have served.

(8) 1998 – The most toxic green — printing paper

(9) 1993 – Natural wear for natural men — fashion

The following advertisements are a little more specific

and refer to elements we typically associate with snakes. In Natural wear for natural men (9) a new men's fashion collection is out. The snake has shed its old, faded skin (the previous collection) and appears in the bright and distinguished black and white of the new fashion.

In Some things in life are hard to swallow (10) the snake stands for a company which needs to buy new equipment. But the investment required can be a hard pill to swallow, just as large prey can be for a snake. The snake must bite the bullet, but for the company, second-hand equipment may be a solution.

(10) 1997 – Some things in life … — second hand equipment

(11) 2001 – Sometimes you have it in you — job vacancy

The remaining advertisements

(11–13) have in common that I don't see why exactly a snake was chosen. In many a case any other species would be at least even adequate.

№ 11 is part of a series of similar advertisements for ICT professionals. We have found them with several kinds of animals — e.g. Zebra, Giraffe — and nothing in the text gives a hint about why that particular animal is called upon.

№ 12 is about men's fragance and I have already told earlier that the snake is a mystery to me. Perhaps that is the feeling a man who uses this perfume wants to convey. Who knows.

№ 13 if for design lighting products. What the man standing in a forest of lupines with a snake over his shoulder may mean? It is beyond me.