Ergon Energy: Grim Llama-Shocks & Tingles

Warning people not to do dangerous things is a difficult task in ads, and it pays to be original (as McCann Melbourne and its multiple award-winning Dumb Ways to Die can attest).

Here comes another totally original effort out of Australia: Instead of the Grim Reaper, how about the Grim Llama? In this set of ads from Ergon Energy, airing regionally in Queensland starting this weekend, the Grim Llama appears, horror-movie style, at moments of danger -- like when encounter a fallen power line, or you're doing electrical DIY, trimming trees near power lines, or you notice some escaped current (above).

So why a llama? In a statement by agency Clemenger BBDO Brisbane, creative director Marianne Harvey explains that llamas are "natural sentinels. ... They're used by sheep farmers to warn flocks of danger. Plus, those big, black eyes stare directly into your soul. How could you forget a look like that?"

Whether you think llamas are scary or not, these ads are utterly memorable -- and made us laugh, too.