Vizio Says Its Sound Bar Will Help You Hear Like a Dog

What’s that, Fido? You want to demonstrate how Vizio Sound Bars can help humans experience enhanced audio when we watch our favorite shows? Good dog!

Canines’ sensitive ears can detect twice as many frequencies as ours, so agency David&Goliath cast pooches in a campaign themed “Hear Like They Do” to tout the speakers’ sonic capabilities.

The VFX experts at Jamm converted Shawn Michienzi’s still photos of dogs into cute, not-so-subtly anthropomorphic animations, with pups kicking back to binge on romance flicks, crime dramas and live sports.

You can tell F/X came into play because that pug doesn’t wolf down the popcorn!

Now, they’re dogs. We’re people. So, we’ll never actually “Hear Like They Do.” Still, its a finely tuned message, delivered with commendable, cuddly cuteness.

“We didn’t want to blend in with competitors using the same old technical jargon,” D&G group creative director Courtney Pulver tells Muse. “We thought that seeing dogs behaving like humans was a beautifully simple way to demonstrate immersive sound quality. And who doesn’t love dogs?”

“We were looking for expressive and interesting faces,” she says. “We wanted the dog in ‘French Lover’ to look like it was caught up in the emotion of a show. Pugs have all those amazing wrinkles and folds that are so expressive when they lift an eyebrow or an ear. Obviously they must love romance movies.”

For “Crime Boss,” the team “imagined the dog hanging out in a den or a man cave,” Pulver says. “So, we looked for a pooch that was a little older, wiser, and probably enjoyed a nice rye whiskey on the rocks while watching mobster flicks.”

Never fear, no animals got hammered in the making of these ads.

For the football spot, “we were searching for a dog that looked more like a couch potato with a longer body-line, so it could lie down on the sofa, and sink into the game,” Pulver says.

The pug dutifully curled up in a blanket for “French Lover,” but the main imagery in the two other ads was achieved through “a composite of multiple shots to help the poses feel even more human. We also gave our dog in ‘The Kicker’ a little more of a beer belly with the help of retouching. But that beer glass was actually sitting on the couch next to the dog. Still can’t believe it didn’t get knocked over, even once.”
 
Jamm brought each scene to life through CGI “tailored to feel as real as possible,” Pulver adds, so viewers might wonder if the pug was actually tearing up, and “question whether these dogs really could sit and stay like that.”

As part of the campaign, Vizio invites pet owners to share Instagram images of their fur babies watching TVs with the hashtag #HearLikeTheyDo.

Social outreach mixes woofers and tweeting.

CREDITS

Agency: David&Goliath, LA
Founder & Creative Chairman: David Angelo
President: Yumi Prentice
Chief Creative Officer: Ben Purcell
Group Creative Director/Copy: Courtney Pulver 
Group Creative Director/Art: Rob Casillas
ACD / Copywriter: Chris Davis
ACD / Art Director: Evan Bross
Managing Director, Broadcast Production: Paul Albanese
Sr Broadcast Producer: Brandon Kusher
Executive Art Producer: Cara Nieto
Associate Integrated Producer: Abigail Grinberg
Sr. Digital Designer: Meagan Steinkamp
Group Comms Director: Jeff Cannata

Managing Director: Jamie Simms
Account Executive: Shane Centkowski
Associate Director of Business Affairs: Yenia Paez
Senior Project Manager: Donna Alexander

Editorial House: Spinach 
Post Producer: Nicole Haws 
Executive Producer: Jonathan Carpio 
Managing Director: Adam Bright 
Editor: Juan Pablo Digenio

Photography Production Company: Ripsaw
Photographer: Shawn Michienzi
Retoucher: Brad Palm

Post-Production/VFX: JAMM
VFX Supervisor/Lead Compositor: Jake Montgomery
VFX Supervisor/Lead CG: Andy Boyd
Flame Artist: Lisa Kim
Flame Artist: Graziella Gandolfi
Lead CG Artist: Anthony Thomas
Lead CG Artist: Brian Burke 
Production Coordinator: Jon Lazar
Senior Producer: Ashley Greyson
Executive Producer: Asher Edwards

Audio: Margarita Mix Santa Monica
Sound Designer/Mixer: Nathan Dubin
Executive Producers: Whitney Morris & Paula Arnett
Operations Manager: Brian Frank

Client: VIZIO
CEO: William Wang
VP, Marketing & Communications: Jodie McAfee
Senior Creative Director: Joey Neal
Director, Performance Marketing: Cody Browne