​When it comes to international advertising, fictional characters living in a fantasy world have an advantage. People from countries all over the world can identify with worlds and characters from a different universe. The global popularity of sci-fi and fantasy movies reflects this. In advertising, showing a real Japanese family enjoying breakfast will resonate with someone from Kyoto but may feel remote and irrelevant to someone in the American Midwest. Imaginary worlds can transcend cultures and enable advertisers to connect with audiences across the globe. From 2000, Unilever’s fabric conditioner brand Comfort used an advertising campaign featuring animated characters made of cloth. The original ads were produced by Aardman, the Oscar-winning animation studio responsible for the Wallace and Gromit series. The campaign appealed to consumers in Europe, Asia and beyond.