Mering Carson

Bob Shallit: NFL Network ads produced in Sacramento

A new series of locally produced TV ads for the NFL Network could double as spots for "Animal Planet."

The humorous promos by the MeringCarson ad agency of Sacramento show fans interacting with living, breathing animal mascots from their favorite pro football teams.

Among the vignettes: A Buffalo Bills fan greets the buffalo grazing on his snow-covered front lawn. A Cincinnati-loving couple watch TV with a Bengal tiger sprawled across their bed. A sleeping St. Louis fan is head-butted awake by a curly horned ram.

Ad agencies "have used mascots before," says Greg Carson, a MeringCarson partner. "But they've never used real, iconic animals."

Carson says the national TV campaign – which began running last weekend – aims to convey the passion that football fans have for their teams.

"They wake up with it. They go to bed with it. They live with it every day," he says.

The 30-second spots were filmed in Pasadena in July. They used "cream-of-the-crop Hollywood animals," Carson says, including the tiger from this summer's film, "The Hangover."

Some human mascots also are included. Among them: a Raider, a Patriot and four members of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad.

The toughest challenges? One was getting a Pasadena house on a 100-degree day to look like a snow-blanketed Buffalo, N.Y., home in the dead of winter. (The solution: fake snow and special effects to create the frosty breath coming from the mouths of fan and animal.)

Another was getting the ram to do anything at all. Most animals are easily trained, Carson says, but not male sheep.

"Rams do what rams do," Carson says.

To view the spots, go to meringcarson.com and click on "Work."