Gramophone (left) and Nipper (right).
For Christmas 2012, British entertainment retailer HMVnote launched a campaign revolving around the Christmastime adventures of its canine mascot Nipper and his beloved gramophone entitled "Nipper & Gramophone's Christmas Tales". For the first time, not only is Nipper in animated form (having previously been portrayed by live-action dogs), but the gramophone is a character now as well, interacting with Nipper. Six shorts were made, along with three teasers and two promotional ads for The Dark Knight Rises and Ice Age: Continental Drift respectively. The campaign was created by branding company Venturethree, with Nexus Productions handling animation duties.
A playlist of the ads can be found on HMV's YouTube channel here
. There was also a website for the campaign, which has been archived here on the Wayback Machine.
Tropes seen in the ads:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: A minor example with Nipper. He is traditionally depicted with two black ears but here he only has one black ear to match with the stylised version of him on the HMV logo◊.
- Alcohol Hic: Gramophone does this in "The Hangover" after coming home drunk from a Christmas party.
- All-CGI Cartoon: Each piece of promotional material is animated entirely in CGI.
- Animate Inanimate Object: Due to being promoted to mascot status, Gramophone now has movements and body language reminiscent of Luxo Jr.
- A Dog Named "Dog": From the website:Gramophone is a gramophone. The really nice old sort, with a shiny brass horn, and a big wooden base.
- Bait-and-Switch: In "Blades of Glory" it looks like Nipper is going to be subject to a Circling Saw-type gag when the ice first breaks, only for it to happen to Gramophone instead.
- Bigger on the Inside: As seen in the ad for ''The Dark Knight Rises'', Gramophone's horn is capable of storing a whole flock of bats. This ad was part of a competition where viewers could win a copy of the film by counting the number of bats flying out at the end.
- Bottle Episode: The ads all take place in the same snowy environment.
- Brick Joke: A sort of cross-media example - in the first teaser, Gramophone arrives on the scene encased in pink wrapping paper and the website footer had him freshly unwrapped.
- Butt-Monkey: Things often tend to go wrong for Gramophone.From the website: But because gramophones (even excitable ones) aren’t the most agile of contraptions, his antics often end in disaster. He’s invariably disappointed when they do, but he needn’t worry. It’s his hapless high jinks that makes Nipper such a fan in the first place. [sic]
- Christmas Light Chaos: Downplayed example in "The Wire". While setting up the lights doesn't seem to have been a problem for Gramophone, the cord is still too short for him to reach Nipper and he ends up yanking it out (don't ask where it was plugged into) when trying to get closer, causing the lights to flicker out.
- Chromosome Casting: As Nipper is already male, Gramophone being referred to with male pronouns makes the campaign count as this as they're the only two characters.
- Crossover: With the Ice Age franchise in this advert. Scrat has jammed his acorn into Gramophone's horn. At the end he takes it out and is sent flying, presumably due to pressure built up in the horn.
- Double Take: Gramophone does one in "The Snowman" after Nipper walks by an incredibly lifelike snow sculpture of himself that Gramophone has mistaken for the real thing.
- Eagleland Osmosis: Despite this being a campaign for a British company, the teasers all start with a parody of the MPAA's "green band" screen that opens many American movie trailers.
- Freeze Sneeze: Gramophone of all characters sneezes snow into Nipper's face in the second teaser.
- Hair-Trigger Avalanche: In "The Sound of Music", Gramophone triggers an avalanche by yodeling.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each advert is named after a piece of popular culture whose name ties in with the plot. For example, in "The Hangover", Gramophone is drunk after partying a little too hard.
- Instant Ice: Just Add Cold!: In "Blades of Glory", the ice on a frozen lake breaks below Gramophone and he emerges from the water moments later encased in a block of ice.
- The Klutz: Gramophone has a tendency to be clumsy, providing much of the humour in the ads.
- Lipstick Mark: Gramophone has one on his horn in "The Hangover".
- Minimalist Cast: Just Nipper and Gramophone, unless one counts Scrat in the Ice Age advert and the bats in The Dark Knight Rises advert.
- Noodle Incident: Gramophone has somehow ended up stuck in a Christmas tree several times his size in "O Christmas Tree" with no explanation as to how this happened.
- Offscreen Crash: Happens to Gramophone after a sledding accident in "Cool Runnings". All we see is his vinyl disc flying off and landing in the snow and Nipper wincing.
- The Speechless: Neither Nipper nor Gramophone speak a single word, unless we count Gramophone's yodeling and hiccups.
- Tagline: Each teaser had one:
- The first had "This Christmas, man's best friend makes a new best friend."
- The second had "Christmas - a time for family, a time for joy and a time for surprises."
- The third had "This Christmas, puppy love gets a new meaning."
- The first
- The Teaser: Three were made for the campaign.
- Under the Mistletoe: Nipper and Gramophone are in this situation in the third teaser and seem confused as to what to do. Then again, dogs and gramophones aren't really cut out for kissing each other.
