IT Insights Blog — animal kingdom

Did you ever wonder, as a child, what you would do for a living as an adult? Almost every kid wants to do something glamorous. Fight fires. Walk on the moon. Be a movie star. Join the circus as a lion tamer. Become the President of the United States. Sometimes the dreams get slightly more refined as a teenager: Learn to play the guitar and start a rock band, for example. Or maybe win a cooking competition on TV and become a world-famous restaurateur like Guy Fieri.

Advertisers like to work with running themes. Someone has a good idea for a commercial. The finished product seems to strike a chord with consumers. So why reinvent the wheel? It's much easier change a few things here and there and stick with what works. People enjoy familiarity, after all, and we especially like to be reminded of something that made us laugh. Insurance conglomerate GEICO is a master of this model.

The next few days on the calendar are fraught with animal auspices. If you find yourself taking a serious interest in reincarnation, or maybe even just contemplating a one-time donation to PETA, well, there's something in the air. Saturday is Groundhog Day (which more or less represents the nirvana that ever zany This or That Day out there strives to achieve). On Sunday, we've got the Rams in the Super Bowl. And, perhaps of greatest portent, next Tuesday is the first day of the Year of the Pig.

Once upon a time one might have supposed that flamboyant singer and songwriter Elton John, 71 and still not letting the sun go down on he, would someday be best-remembered, years after his death, for one of his soaring rock ballads: "Candle in the Wind," "Tiny Dancer," "Rocket Man." Then in 1994 the energetic performer and eyewear pioneer collaborated with Walt Disney Studios on an animated movie about animals roaming free on the African savannah and "Circle of Life" was born.

If there's one animal that we associate with stubbornness, it would definitely be the, um, male donkey. (Yes, smart guy, there's another word for that.) Some might say "mule," and indeed the word "mulish" is defined as "resembling or likened to a mule in being stubborn." A mule is technically the offspring of a, er, male donkey and a female horse, so donkeys and mules are not really the same thing, but both are legendarily stubborn.