dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca (David Graham) (04/11/90)
A commercial for Esso (which is what we call Exxon in Canada) which
I'm seeing a lot of these days because they're a sponsor for the
Stanley Cup playoffs :-), begins with a man coming out of his house
somewhere in Suburbia, N.A. (could be just about anywhere in summer).
He looks up, whereupon there's a cut to a close-up of a Red-Crested
Cardinal, _Paroaria coronata_, which emits a cheerful chirp. Evidently
this is supposed to establish a mood of good humour or something. The
cardinal appears to be sitting in a tree overhead, though since it
never reappears in any of the long shots, one presumes it was actually
filmed in a cage...
My question is this: are there any North American records for this
species? If not, is it a common cage bird on this continent? If not,
did they actually go to South America to film this commercial? Can
anyone suggest why they would choose this bird rather than a native
species, beyond the obvious reason of its attractive appearance?
--
***************************************************************************
David Graham dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Department of French & Spanish {...}munucs!dgraham
Memorial University of Newfoundland (709)737-7636/7 (Voice)
St John's, NF (709)737-4000 (Fax)
CANADA A1B 3X9
***************************************************************************grp@magpie.unify.uucp (Greg Pasquariello) (04/13/90)
In article <77277@kean.ucs.mun.ca> dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca (David Graham) writes:
[ Red-crested Cardinal in commercial ]
My question is this: are there any North American records for this
species? If not, is it a common cage bird on this continent? If not,
did they actually go to South America to film this commercial? Can
anyone suggest why they would choose this bird rather than a native
species, beyond the obvious reason of its attractive appearance?
--
***************************************************************************
David Graham dgraham@kean.ucs.mun.ca
I don't know if there have been any NA records or not, but it was probably
put in the commercial out of sheer ignorance. It cracks me up sometimes, how
various species of birds are often used in completly inappropriate settings
in movies and on TV. On an episode of "Murder, She Wrote" a few years ago
I was real impressed with how the spoke about a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker; they
didn't make any of the usual jokes - just solved some crime with plausible
sapsucker facts. That is, until they mentioned something about it's habit of
nesting on the ground.
How much time can it take to research the basic habits of the single most
important element of the plot?
-Greg
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Pasquariello (916) 920-9092 grp@unify.UUCP
Unify Corporation ...!{csusac, pyramid}!unify!grp
"I think I have a woodpecker!" - s. strool