Gorilla tactics
13th Sep 2007
By Steve Eltringham
How refreshing to see some fun put back into the Coronation Street commercial break.
I remember when everyone used to say there was more entertainment in the ad breaks than during the programmes. Well maybe those times are coming back.
The latest Cadbury film featuring a gorilla playing the drums to a Phil Collins sound track has got everybody talking (and laughing). (Not yet seen it? Click here.)
No voice-over telling you it’s made with a pint and a half of milk, no sexy woman lying on a chaise longue biting into a smooth bar of chocolate. Just pure, unadulterated fun.
Why?
Why not? It’s said it shows that moment just after you’ve had a piece of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate. That’s good enough for me.
There has of course always been humour in advertising, starting with Smash in the seventies. The reason we don’t see as much fun as we should is that agencies and clients run scared when they have a ‘silly’ idea put to them.
Both the agency and the client have stuck their neck out on this one and it’s worked, getting 500,000 visits in one week on YouTube and its own Facebook group.
What tends to happen in the ad world is that a successful piece of advertising starts a trend where other agencies use the success of someone else’s ad to sell their own brand of humour. The problem is convincing the client to be as brave, but unfortunately it seldom works and we’re back to chaise longues.
TV is so bad at the moment that the advertising commercial has little to compete with. So come on everybody, more gorillas and Martians in our three-minute gaps between the X-Factor and all that other crap.
Steve Eltringham is Creative Director at WAA
Comments on this article
Dimuth commented 8 months ago
Great advert, Had me in stitches, I love the real subtle part where the gorilla gives an ever so tiny snarl at the camera when it pans in too close - Nice touch.
I want to see the gorilla on Second Life, if it's not already been done. I'd definitely go to one of gorillas gigs.
Chris Tomlinson commented 9 months ago
Even if brands make these ads for TV they will get a lot of secondary exposure or "greater brand reach", as I belive you marketing people call it on YouTube.
Great video ads are almost wasted on TV !