Snail’s place is over the fence

What is it with snails all of a sudden? The extremely slow-moving creatures have managed to crawl their way into starring roles in a whole host of recent TV ads.

Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO flew out a number of the gentle creepy crawlies to Cuba to take part in a snail race for a Guinness ad.

J Walter Thompson recruited the services of Aardman Animation to transform an ordinary snail into one with a grandiose house on its back for the Homes section of The Daily Telegraph.

And now Freeserve is showing a couple of snails “getting it on” in one of its latest ads.

Could it be that creatives are under the mistaken belief that snails are better behaved than puppies, children and cats?

Snails may have slimed their way into creatives’ hearts but as far as The Diary, a keen gardener, is concerned, they remain oozy little devils which leave a trail of death and destruction in their wake and are only good for one thing – lobbing over the neighbour’s wall.