Zoozoos in Vodafone TV Ads Aren’t Animated

On first look, these “zoozoos” in Vodafone TV ads for IPL may resemble animated cartoon characters with an alien look or simply a stupid egg-head character with disproportional white bodies and black dots for eyes and mouth.
These Zoozoo characters, in case you haven’t seen them yet, have been created by O&M for Vodafone to convey different value added services offered by the mobile phone company including phone Backup, cricket alerts, etc.
Watch Zoozoo videos
This was something which was created purely out of textbook and is totally an Indian idea. The characters are such that they lead simple lives, speak insane and incomprehensible language and move in a certain way with human emotions.
But the interesting part is that Zoozoos are not animated characters but are actually slim women actors from local Mumbai theatres, dressed in white costumes that are stuffed with foam to portray the characters.
Prakash Varma, who directed the Vodafone ZooZoo commercials, told Afaqs that they only had women – and occasionally children – as their main cast to keep the hands and legs thin of the Zoozoo characters.
Such is the craze with Zoozoo that Vodafone ads are among the most watched videos on YouTube and there are over 50,000 Zoozoo fans on Facebook.
Vodafone has an IPL microsite for quizzes and contests where one can know the kind of Zoozoo he or she is as each Zoozoo character has a unique set of characteristics and traits allotted to it. Fans may also download wallpapers and screensavers from the Zoozoo microsite.
It seems that the new Vodafone campaign, which is immensely popular during IPL ad-breaks, would make way for the departure of good old pug ‘Chitika’.
Making of Zoozoo TV Ads
Here’s a behind the scenes video that shows how these creative Zoozoos were made with human characters and not animation as most of us have assumed.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTpdwMHSHGM&feature=player_embedded