Ian Falconer's Olivia

The most popular pig in children's literature in this decade has to be Olivia, Ian Falconer's strong-willed heroine of eight books. My two favorites are Olivia Saves the Circus (2001) and Olivia Starts a Band (2006). According to a 2003 article by Bob Minzesheimer in USA Today, Falconer has no good answer for why he chose a pig: "I have no idea. There seems to be a lot of pigs and ducks in kids' books. Pigs are shaped like little kids. Their bodies are smaller than their heads. Pigs are supposed to be intelligent, smarter than dogs, but they're a bit awkward. Their trotters are like little kids' arms that don't work very well yet."

The U.S. Postal Service included Olivia in a 2006 stamp series of Favorite Children's Book Animals (above). Note that two pigs made the cut, Olivia, and Wilbur from E.B. White's Charlotte's Web.

You can find a conversation with Falconer about his creation here on the Simon & Schuster site.

Arnold Lobel's Pigericks

Arnold Lobel's The Book of Pigericks (1983) contains 38 limericks about pigs, framed between two semi-autobiographical limericks about an old pig with a pen who looks surprisingly like a porcine version of Arnold Lobel himself (see the cover to the right). The limericks themselves are silly, perfect for the 4-8 year olds who are the target audience. For example:

There was a rich pig from Palm Springs
Who had passions for bracelets and rings.
He displayed his collection
Around his midsection
By means of strong wires and strings.

Yet another find in my attack on the CSULB Children's Collection.

Lewis Carroll's "The Pig-Tale"

California State University Long Beach has an outstanding children's literature collection, where I've been going through lots and lots of pig-related books. One pleasant surprise was the discovery of Leonard B. Lubin's 1975 adaptation of Lewis Carroll's "The Pig-Tale," which originally appeared in Sylvie and Bruno (full text here) in 1889. It concerns a pig who is grief-stricken because he cannot jump. A frog comes by and offers to teach the pig how to jump for a fee. The frog jumps easily onto an old water pump, and urges the pig to "bend your knees and take a hop." The result:

Uprose that Pig, and rushed, full whack,
Against the ruined Pump:
Rolled over like an empty sack,
And settled down upon his back,
While all his bones at once went 'Crack!'
It was a fatal jump.

The Frog winds up in a dismal mood, of course, because he would never get his fee.

Lubin's illustrations are quite charming, with the animals in formal Victorian-era costumes. The story of the pig is interspersed with verses about little birds, also nicely illustrated, if perhaps a bit too surreal and fantastic for some. I couldn't find any examples of Lubin's work on "The Pig-Tale," so y'all get an image of Lewis Carroll instead. Sorry.

Does This Ad Strike Too Close to Home?

The Trojan condom company launched a new ad campaign over the summer called "Evolve." It is of note because, in the words of the corporate press release (here), it uses "animated images of pigs to humorously represent self-centered, immature, and thoughtless behavior. The 'hero' transforms from a pig to a man when he demonstrates responsibility by choosing to use condoms." The campaign is ostensibly designed to encourage self-respect among men and respect for their potential female sexual partners and uses pigs to represent that lack of humanity. The pigs for the commercial were created by Stan Winston Studios. You can find two short videos about the making of the commercial here on the main Trojan Evolve website. The ad campaign was created by the Kaplan Thaler Group. Its chief creative officer, Linda Kaplan Thaler, notes that "Some people may be initially surprised by the imagery, but we're really using the pigs as a metaphor for selfish behavior to call to attention a very important subject."

The Fox and CBS networks have refused to run this ad. According to the New York Times article "Pigs with Cellphones, but no Condoms" (here) about the controversy, Fox rejected the spot because "Contraceptive advertising must stress health-related uses rather than the prevention of pregnancy." CBS wrote, "while we understand and appreciate the humor of this creative, we do not find it appropriate for our network even with late-night-only restrictions." Many commentators have pointed out the hypocrisy here given the often salacious nature of the programming and the ubiquitous ads for erectile dysfunction treatments that run on these networks.

Few commentators I've seen have had anything to say about the porcine content of these ads. Most have simply agreed that the campaign is funny and clever. Some bloggers have concurred with the presmise that most men are pigs, especially when young, in groups, and out drinking in bars trying to pick up women. I wonder, though, if it's the way this campaign makes the metaphor real that is ultimately creating people's discomfort. After all, it's one thing to say that men are pigs, but to show it with quasi-realistic animatronic animals perhaps mobilizes our fear and disgust about our kinship with non-human animals. As Erica Fudge notes in her wonderful book Animal (Reaktion, 2002), this kind of metaphorical use of the animal highlights the "failure of humanity" and can provoke a desire to wipe out this kinship through mastery, control, and domination. I guess we'll have to see if the sales of Trojan brand condoms rise as young people seek to bolster their human-ness.

Armando Romero's "Pork Flakes (The Gladiator)"

I was visiting the Museum of Latin American Art here in Long Beach with my pal Lisa over the weekend when we saw this amazing painting as part of their exhibition "La Presencia: Latin American Art in the United States." There was no label for the painting on the wall, which was a bit strange. I looked at the exhibition catalog and didn't find it either, but did see a work in a similar style. Once at home, I got to work and finally tracked down Armando Romero's work. You can see five other of his works, most of which seem to be satires of master paintings, on artnet here. Based on what's there, this painting from 2006 is the odd man out, perhaps connoting a new direction in his work. All I know is that I love it.

The Energy Hog

Josh Levin has an interesting slide show on Slate today called "Smokey Bear Nation" (here) about the uses of animals to teach children. The site has some nice images and film clips, including Disney's 1944 poster for the U.S. Forest Service featuring characters from Bambi (1942) and the 1952 Federal Civil Defense Administration "Duck and Cover" campaign featuring Bert the Turtle, although you won't get much in-depth analysis of how and why images of animals have been used at different moments in history. Levin does argue that "for Smokey Bear and his animal friends, life is harder now that it was 20 years ago" as a result of the end of compulsory public service announcements that brought widespread public awareness of characters such as Smokey the Bear or Woodsy Owl. Perhaps a sign of how much has changed is the Energy Hog campaign, which creates a villain to loathe rather than a character to emulate. This energy efficiency campaign, launched in 2004 by the Ad Council, The Alliance to Save Energy, and a host of other groups, including Home Depot, is targeted at kids, who are encouraged to play on-line games to defeat the Energy Hog (left) and become a "Hog Buster." You can try to play the game "Hog and Seek" for yourself here. There are also tips for adults about energy conservation at the main site, www.energyhog.org. It's a rather odd campaign, one that plays off all the worst stereotypes about sus scrofa. It might just be me, but there's also something vaguely creepy about the way they've anthropomorphized the pig to create the Energy Hog, who seems vaguely ethnic. Weird.