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Activists in a flap over penguins in Guinness ad

By Deborah McAleese

01 November 2006

It may be a source of laughter in living rooms and cinemas across Ireland but the latest Guinness commercial has definitely not generated much mirth among animal rights activists.

The commercial about the lives of two penguins has infuriated the animal rights group Animal Defenders International who have said it would have caused unnecessary suffering for the animal stars.

Dubbed 'Best Mates' the commercial depicts the treacherous journey a pair of live emperor penguins have to make in order to get to the pub and order a pint of Guinness.

When the pair finally arrive at the pub the penguin bar tender is not amused that neither have any money to pay for their pints.

Produced by Blink Productions, the commercial also features computer generated images of the penguins.

"It is totally inappropriate to use these species for filming," said Jan Creamer, chief executive of Animal Defenders International (ADI).

"Devoid of their natural habitat and their own kind they can be subjected to harsh training regimes to perform in a commercial environment. The presence of film crews and equipment is highly disruptive and they do not cope well in warmer climates.

"Animals do not need to suffer in this way, if brands used computer generated images instead throughout their ads."

However, Guinness last night defended the commercial and said it is "acutely aware of the absolute necessity to treat animals used in commercials with due care for their mental and physical well being."

1-6[1/2] June 5, 2006

Do penguins blush? How about pengophiles? This is a short edition to prove that this pengophile does.

The link i provided yesterday to get you to my collection of penguin animations was wrong. If you followed it you got to a collection of nonpenguin videos. They were special to me but my purpose was to make some 120 penguin animations available to the world. The right link is:

I also want to remind you of the supersite that was providing animations to the world for longer than Ive known how to find them, Monys Curry and Potluck. Its still alive and extremely well.

1-6 June 4, 2006

this morning i announce the newest variation in my penguin giveaway efforts - 2 photobuckets full of penguin videos and animations available for the taking. photobucket is one of the new genre of websites designed to allow us internet amateurs to house and circulate our personal collection of image files. photobucket comes with less baggage than some of the other sites - you set up the account, load up what you want and invite people to come check them out.

so last night i stripped my downloaded collection of 41 penguin related videos and placed them in a bucket and I want to make them available to any pengophiles for viewing and hopefully downloading. So if youre interested go directly to:

the animation version is:

three photobucket notes:

1] the site doesnt show file names so if you want a list of the titles of the videos, write me - i have a list with comments.

2] downloading or copying the videos may be problematic: youre on your own right now. if you cant download the videos its probably for the same technical reason i have capturing videos on some of the other sites. i have a more good penguin videos but for the moment theyre just links. none of my small band of tricks work when i want to make them my own. technical assistance from any source from any source would be appreciated and could add videos to the bucket and make them more available to everyone.

3] ill happily take anything off that a copyrite person says is theres with my congratulations for creating it.

a last note: my trip to photobucket included a stop at my space which i have also joined. i havent tried to jazz it up yet. i have used the blog portion to post my little blue newses, a photoshow of the tulsa penguins and an article about penguin lovers and myspace. feel free to check my little space.

1-4 April 23, 2006

DANCING PENGUINS

Hollywoods discovery that penguins are salable has led them to discover what penguin lovers and Mary Poppins knew all along. Penguins look like they should dance, not march. Stay tuned until November when Happy Feet hits the big screen. For today take a trip with me thru dancing penguins

This australian who calls himself dingus also offers a pretty complete list of other penguin dance sites:

"Kewl Penguin Links - The Other Penguin Dance Pages"

I also rediscovered another site that has a lot more tux and some of their own penguin rock and roll and claims to include the original penguin dance site.

The line dancing penguins from a b3ta.com person updates these dancing penguin animations.

Follow his links to other stuff and nonsense including the runaway easter penguin.

Heres some less conventional versions of penguin dancing:

A dancing penguin popper from the Penguin Place store. I offer the url site and the shorter home page of the Penguin Place.

http://www.penguin-place.com/cgi-bin/html_web_store.cgi?page=new_1_42/index.html&cart_id=1373163.4552264

A book lovers site has a nonanimated penguin 4 panel dancing penguin cartoon that's nice and original.

A penguin dance video slot machine game presumably available only commercially - maybe to the tribes.

A political analysis linking penguin dancing and Irans national symbol.

A wind-up dancing penguin that comes with its own egg and a good writeup on this website.

And a totally uninspected screen saver involving dancing penguins.

http://www.brothersoft.com/screen_savers/miscellaneous/moonlight_dancing_penguins_screensaver_44523.html

And absolutely no link to the overused dancing penguin video which Im sure youve already seen.

1-3 April 8, 2006

GAMES

Lycos has something called Poke the penguin which is technically a game and appears to have been spread out all over net. Its a short bit of fun and the penguin wins.

WEBPAGES

PS Theres a nice surprise when you leave.

IMAGES

Origami Penguin - no directions or I dont think so. Its all japanese to me.

VIDEOS, ANIMATIONS AND SUCH

Youtube is one of those proliferating sources of videos posted by the makers and others. The search reveals 758 videos including a good share of the predictable but some gems. Examples:

Pengo - a short japanese commercial:

Pengs - an old personal favorite Ive found elsewhere before:

Pete the penguin: episode 1. A day in the life of pete - a short sweet start to a series of professionlally produced videos from Australia. Not the same pete that seems to be everywhere else.

Happy Feet You tube led me to this years big budget follow up to March and Madagascar. Its coming out in November. I hope its as good as the trailers.

REAL STUFF - NEWS

Penguins 1 - Dinosaurs 0

COMMERCIAL - PRODUCTS

US penguin stamps. Zazzle is one of those places that puts penguin and other images on most everything. But theyre the first that puts them on legal united states postage stamps. 60 penguin stamps available.

WEB RESOURCES

Penguin Ecards - a small selection of free cards from Australia with a really cute penguin star.

QUOTES

SUI GENERIS

MUSIC

The Penguin Song from web site by "The Cheap Imitation" . My kind of silly short song - Last year I emailed the singer his first fan mail. Feel free to follow my lead if you like it.

1-2 April 2, 2006

So I try for the second time with slightly changed categories. If the links dont work try cutting and pasting - they are all current.

VIDEOS, ANIMATIONS AND SUCH

The awkward title stems from the difficulty Im having deciding what to call the short funny animated products created by those more skilled than me using photoshop and the like. Theyre more than the little animated gifs and a bit short of the full blown videos like the famous tripping penguin. Im open to any suggestions as to what to call them. Meanwhile heres a favorite in the genre:

Doug And Bill: A series of 8 short really funny photoanimations[?] featuring two penguins.

I have downloaded all 8 and this may work better for viewing - on site the tops are cut off on my screen. You can also navigate thru the home page to the doug and bill archives and a wallpaper as well as a variety of interesting products of this inventive mind.

WEBSITES

Pinguins Info. My still long time favorite not just becaue she allowed me to contribute slightly.

QUOTES

Last thing at night I watch reruns of a British comedy I call my little ol men show: Last of the Summer Wine'. I love it in part because it has almost no evil. The only young' people in it are a very straight male named barry and his wife. Mirabile dictu barry twice utters this line before a funeral:

The crowd looks at him utterly without comprehension and says nothing. Pengophilia as we perhaps all know is a joy more tolerated than understood by those not prone to it.

Heres the dream repeated more conventionally:

"Of all the things I would like to do during my life, my greatest dream is to go to Antarctica and shake hands with a penguin!" - Larry Mester

And an official source to which you will note, I have sloppily tried to add some from my own collection.

POLITICS

Penguins have been tossed in a variety of unlikely areas of argument between the right and left. Heres an image from the last election which combines my political bias and the primary real penguin political issue: the effects of political decisions regarding the environment on penguins.

http://www.foothilltech.org/ccrouch/images/image_bank/propaganda/pages/penguin.htm

MUSIC

BLOGS

Penguin-Blog - Humboldts, Gentoos and Rockhoppers, Oh My.

A new found friend who has already posted some non April fools news involving my little blue friends although he does call them by their other name.

COMMERCIAL/PRODUCTS

Penguin images for tattoos from Tattootales Inc.Ive seen better on at least one yahoo group member but its a start in these tattooing time.

KIDSTUFF

Becca's Workshop - A Classic Toy Store. THE PENGUIN - A Collection of Stuffed Penguins, Puppets and Books. A little plushy for my taste but a good selection with some inventiveness