Mobile Number Portability
With the introduction of mobile number portability…
May
27
Zoozoos: Inspiration or Imitation?
The Zoozoo series of ads is one of the most successful running campaigns for telecom giant Vodafone, which had an equal (if not less) amount of success with their ‘pug’ ads. These eggshell like cute white funny creatures have become all the rage in India, so much so that Vodafone plans to air 30 different commercials. Just like in television, you can find them everywhere online too, especially on social networking websites like Facebook and YouTube, in the form of applications, quizzes, micro sites, etc.
But yesterday, I came across an interesting link which changed my lookout on these Zoozoos completely. I stumbled upon a series of graphics on popular stock imagery website stockxpert iStockPhoto by user Huebi (real name: Alexander Hübert from Wuppertal, Germany), which were made available in 2007. The interesting part about these graphics is that they resemble the Zoozoos to quite an extent. In fact, I first thought that these Zoozoos also made it to stock imagery sites… LOL!
Follow the links below to check out each of these graphics:
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-4855288-heart.php
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5086662-businesspartner.php
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-4855311-christmas.php
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5086576-businessman-with-a-dollarsign.php
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5086681-handshaking-businessmen.php
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-5153649-businessman-holding-up-a-blank-sign.php
So the question still remains… are the Zoozoos an inspiration or are they just a cut-copy-paste idea? I leave that for you to decide! 
Quick Update (3rd June, 2009):
Zoozoo fans are obviously annoyed by this post and they’re throwing their comparisons with just about any white character with ’2 eyes and a mouth’ as a form of rebuttal. Enjoy the comments below. 
Update (20th August, 2010):
The links to images have been changed, as stockxpert.com now redirects to istockphoto.com
[...] blogger, Priyank may have accidentally stumbled upon the ‘inspiration’ for the lovable and popular Zoozoos. The question, he rightly asks, inspiration or [...]
[...] I was just surfing net and i found this blog of Priyanka where she is [...]
Hmm.. They look similar, but then again the usual Alien look is also similar to Zoozoos. I think zoozoos is original concept. Zoozoos have a mouth too
What about the Pillsbury man?
How about the ‘Michelin Man’ and the ‘Stay Puff Marshmallow Man’?
not very surprising at all. Indian media has always been in the habit of plagiarising & copying shamelessly
How about this, the eyes and nose are the same right ?
http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2009/hello_kitty/hello_kitty_09.jpg
… and Hello Kitty is 35 years old
http://ow.ly/aBbi
You forgot the white color of your Hello Kitty which is similar too.
these are basic references for 3d modeled mascots, i have used lots of them for concept presentations, these are easy to model and render for basic explanations, hence the rounded ‘eggy’ look… looks like vodafone bought the concept eggmen as is
Super Yank!!
I found this nice article on Zoozoos:
http://personaldevelopment.suite101.com/article.cfm/passion-in-life