Bambi effect

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Bambi Effect , also known as Bambi Factor, describes the rejection of killing and consuming animals that are widely regarded as "cute" by the public.

Infantilization of nature

The Bambi effect is mostly based on the child's scheme , the appearance of which is characterized, for example, by large eyes and snub noses. This includes animals such as the deer, the seal or the rabbit. Animals that do not conform to this pattern, for example snails, hyenas or sharks, are given less public attention if they are threatened by the same processes. The completely natural protective instinct , the Bambi effect, becomes too easily a complex, distorted, infantile perception of nature that may also threaten nature - or the Bambi syndrome .

Teddy bear

In addition to his political work, the US President Theodore Roosevelt also shaped international nurseries to this day: the teddy bear was named after him. During an unsuccessful hunting trip for days in Mississippi, during which Roosevelt had resolved to shoot a bear, no one was seen; when one of his hunting assistants came across a rather small bear (235 pounds, a little more than two hundredweight), he tied it to a tree and released it to Roosevelt to shoot. The "teddy" Roosevelt, however, refused to come to a hunted prey in this way and renounced the shooting and the cub was then killed by one of his helpers with a knife.

Knut and Bruno

The Berlin zoo polar bear Knut (2006-2011) enchanted the audience as a tame young animal. This even led to worldwide media attention. In the year Knut was born, the young brown bear Bruno (2004-2006), who immigrated on his own as a wild animal JJ1 from Trentino via Austria to Bavaria, was declared an undesirable and threatening problem bear and finally shot down on June 26th, with official approval , 171 Years after the last bear kill in Bavaria in 1835.

PR and advertising

The Bambi effect is one of the human reaction patterns often exploited by the PR industry. For example, certain products sell better if they are advertised with pictures of fawns, puppies, kittens and, more generally, of furry young animals. In view of this effect, large shopping chains do not sell furs for reasons of image.

Bambi effect in the show media

  • The film Bambi , among others, is seen as the primary trigger .
  • “Who killed Bambi?”, First introduced as a song title by the Sex Pistols , has developed into a widely used catchphrase that alludes to the effect. The title is now also used in 2003 (director: Gilles Marchand) for an erotic thriller ( Who killed Bambi? ) And a punk rock band founded in 2004 .
  • The saying "I killed Bambi and I'll fuck Flipper" is attributed to the punk rocker GG Allin .
  • A fawn figure is awarded annually as the " Bambi - Media and TV Prize ".

In the literature

In their piglet book , the authors Michael Schmidt-Salomon and Helge Nyncke consciously use the little "sweet" pig for critical questioning of religion. The whale Moby Dick and the marlin from The Old Man and the Sea were menacingly big and dangerous, so that they really represent the danger, the long nose of the marlin bears little resemblance to the Bambi.

In the movie

In the comedy Mäusejagd , the little mouse is not a pest or a parasite , but an intelligent figure that is popular and of course the winner of the conciliatory happy ending of the dramatic story.

In the animated film Ratatouille from 2007, the discrepancy between the evil and generally loathed sewer rat and the extraordinary ingenious and sensitive kitchen rat as hero, philanthropist and helper is discussed. On the one hand, rats are still feared as pests, plagues and threats, but at the same time rats are petted and protected as pets and cuddly toys, as body rats. And because of their sensitivity, rats are increasingly being chosen as helpers, for example for searching for explosives and mines.

The white shark had been very be large and menacing cinematic reasons, now sharks are themselves as worthy of protection in movies tame animals presented.

The orca ( killer whale or "killer whale") owes its popularity not least to the film Free Willy - parts 1, 2 and 3 ; the costly release campaign of its film actor, Keiko from the Reino Aventura amusement park in Mexico City, has preoccupied the media worldwide.

See also

literature

  • Matt Cartmill: Bambi Syndrome. Passion for hunting and misanthropy in cultural history . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1995, ISBN 3-499-55566-2 , previously under the title: Tod im Morgengrauen. The relationship between humans and nature and hunting (original title: A View to a Death in the Morning , translated by Hans-Ulrich Möhring). Artemis and Winkler, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-1095-0 .

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Rainer Brämer, Das Bambi Syndrome (PDF file; 62 kB) , Marburg 1998 (accessed December 29, 2012).