House hippo

The house hippo is a fictitious species of hippopotamus, and the subject of a Canadian television public service announcement (PSA) produced by Concerned Children's Advertisers (later known as Companies Committed to Kids) in May 1999[1] and reintroduced by MediaSmarts in 2019.

[2] The spot shows footage and describes the behaviour of the "North American house hippo", a fictional animal found "throughout Canada, and the eastern United States".

[3] The animal is described as sleeping for 16 hours per day, and enjoying a diet of raisins, chips and "crumbs from peanut butter on toast".

To incorporate this material into the live-action video, Spin added shadowing, blurring, focus rolls and colour correction "to bring the stock and original footage together seamlessly".

[2][10] The new version, produced by Ottawa media production firm HyperActive, was more explicit that the hippo was not real and was accompanied by lesson plans to encourage teachers to use the PSA in their classes.