| 1 | 1 | | Animals in advertising a re big business in the 1980s. Ever since PG Tips, the |
| 2 | | well-known brand of tea, started using monkeys in 1956, animals, particularly monkeys, |
| 3 | | have been the favourite way of advertising new products on television. |
| 2 | 4 | | PG Tips' monkeys have proved that by using animals to sell a product, sales can |
| 5 | | dramatically increase. When the monkeys were first introduced in 1956, PG Tips was |
| 6 | | tenth on the list of the teas the British liked to drink best. But within five years of the |
| 7 | | monkeys being used to promote the product, PG Tips was top of the tea list. It has |
| 8 | | remained there ever since, being drunk by an impressive 30 per cent of British tea |
| 9 | | drinkers. |
| 3 | 10 | | A spokeswoman for the advertising agency Needham, which makes the PG Tips |
| 11 | | advertisements, explains the campaign's success: 'We think it is due to the humour in the |
| 12 | | commercials. Take our latest commercial, for example. The famous actress Penelope |
| 13 | | Keith provides the voice for a chimpanzee who is letting in some repairmen to fix her |
| 14 | | television. But the monkey repairmen catch sight of her microwave oven with a bowl of |
| 15 | | spaghetti in it, think that it is the TV, and ask if it is showing a spaghetti western. I think |
| 16 | | the advert shows the cuteness of the chimps at their very best.' |
| 4 | 17 | | But is it right to dress monkeys up as human beings in order to sell a product? |
| 18 | | Needham, the advertising agency, is quick to point out: 'If it wasn't right to use the |
| 19 | | monkeys, the advertisement would have been banned years ago. All adverts are tightly |
| 20 | | controlled by the IBA, the Independent Broadcasting Association, and if they were |
| 21 | | insulting for the animals, they would not be on the air.' |
| 5 | 22 | | However, some animal rights movements, such as Zoo Check, think that it is not |
| 23 | | right, as Zoo Check worker William Travers explains: 'We believe that using monkeys |
| 24 | | dressed as humans doesn't make people respect chimps, other than as second class |
| 25 | | human beings. |
| 6 | 26 | | And we are particularly worried at the moment, after the incident three months ago |
| 27 | | at a zoo, where a young boy had his arm ripped off by a chimp. The problem is that |
| 28 | | these adverts confuse our image of the chimpanzee, which is after all an animal with |
| 29 | | three times as much strength as a grown-up human. The public is presented with an |
| 30 | | image of chimps which makes people think they are harmless when they visit them in |
| 31 | | zoos.' |
| 7 | 32 | | A new advert by Barr soft drinks shows a monkey called Bubbles with a false |
| 33 | | plastic nose on his face. The British Union for Anti Vivisection (BUAV) has called this |
| 34 | | particular advert 'one of the most shameful adverts we have ever seen'. They say that 'it |
| 35 | | makes the chimpanzee seem unintelligent, while science has shown that it is as intelligent |
| 36 | | as man.' |
| 8 | 37 | | But Barr's marketing director firmly denies that the advert is insulting. 'Frankly, the |
| 38 | | increase in sales of our drink speaks for itself. Children don't find the advert offensive, |
| 39 | | they think it's fun. And they have voted with their money by buying our product that |
| 40 | | they like the advertising campaign. But if the kids tell me to stop using this advert, I will. |
| 41 | | And that's a promise.' |
| | | |
| | | from an article by Ariane Koek in 'Early Times', September 7, 1989 |
