At the end of 2010, ITV selected twenty of the most popular TV adverts from the year and entered them in to their own competition to find the television ‘Ad of the Year’. This was the winning advert. To be clear, a dog rescue centre did not make the advert, it was made by an advertising agency called Thinkbox who use Harvey as an example to demonstrate how powerful TV advertising can be. The advert is of course meant to be light hearted and humorous, but its very existence tells a much deeper story about our relationship with dogs and the outcome of their domestication – the advert could not be a success if there were not a strong foundation to this story that engaged a TV viewing audience. Thinkbox has naturally chosen an animal and a situation to maximise impact and Harvey did just this: “Thinkbox’s TV ad has seen Thinkbox.tv traffic increase by over 400%, Harvey’s Facebook page attract over 7,000 fans... It has also attracted over a million online views following 260 million broadcast TV views,” (thinkbox.tv: 2010). It’s doubtful that the cockroach could generate such a surge of interest and likeability. Harvey is the very idea of domesticated bliss between Man and Dog where the essence of domestication is to operate as part of a team. This cooperation is merely a reflection of what happens in the wild:
“In mixed-species flocks, such as the herds of giraffe, zebra, and wildebeest that are always grazing on African savannas in picture postcards and wildlife documentaries, the members of the group gain an added advantage because the especially acute senses of one species can make up for the deficiencies of another... Pooling their resources gives them a greater chance of detecting an approaching lion than any one would have on its own,” (Budiansky: The Covenant of the Wild, 1992).Harvey is forming a contract with his new owners in a domesticated setting where there is washing to be done, clothes to be ironed and children to be fed. He knows that new owners will feed him and offer him shelter so, in return and to convince them to take him, he advertises his ability to help around the house. However, in reality, humans are not keeping their part of the bargain. It is a sad fact that in the UK in 2009 the RSPCA found new homes for 90,493 abandoned or rescued animals (rspca.org.uk, 2011) and “investigated 141,280 cruelty complaints” (ibid.). Battersea Dogs & Cats Home looks after 10,600 cats and dogs every year (battersea.org.uk, 2011), whilst The Dogs Trust is looking after a further 16,000 dogs (dogstrust.org.uk, 2011). The advert may be imaginative and effective, but it only forms a contract between Thinkbox and its clients. Harvey is only a tool for entertainment and to generate sales. His situation, however, is very real.
