Yes, you are a very fine one!
New Geico commercial, new luck: The Martin Agency shows that most people speak to dogs in a baby language.
The animated dog inspector McGruff was created in 1980 by the agency Dancer Fitzgerald Sample (now Saatchi & Saatchi) for a US crime prevention campaign. He has been an institution ever since, combating not only child abduction (see 1984 commercial below) and drug abuse over the years, but also cyberbullying in 2008, for example. According to Wikipedia, nine out of ten Americans were familiar with the dog on behalf of a good cause at the time.
He is still very well known today. Geico and The Martin Agency are using this for a new disarming campaign idea. The insurance advertising dream team is taking advantage of the fact that people generally like to talk to dogs as if they were small children - in what is known as "baby language".
A study that Welt.de investigated the phenomenon. In experiments, it became clear that the test subjects addressed all dogs (pictures) - regardless of their age - like a baby: high voice, clear pronunciation. In puppies, the voice also increased. The researchers suspect that baby talk is not a reaction to the cute animal, but that it is a general impulse in us humans when we talk to someone who cannot speak or barely understands us. Puppies would reinforce this impulse with their childlike appearance.
This also explains why, in the Geico commercial, even the serious McGruff - just about to help solve a crime - can't avoid the childish speech. (hae)
