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Gorilla (Cadbury)
Encyclopedia
Gorilla is a British
advertising campaign
launched by Cadbury Schweppes
in 2007 to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk
-brand chocolate
. The 90-second television and cinema advertisement, which formed the centrepiece of the £
6.2 million campaign, was created and directed by Juan Cabral and starred actor Garon Michael. The campaign itself, which comprised appearances on billboards
, print newspapers and magazines, television and cinema spots, event sponsorships and an internet
presence, was handled by advertising agency
Fallon London
, with the online segment contracted out to Hyper.
The advertisement, which first appeared on British television on 31 August 2007, has since gone on to appear in a number of other countries, including Canada
, Australia
, South Africa
and New Zealand
. It has been well received by the public – a version uploaded to video sharing
website YouTube
received 500,000 page views in the first week after the launch. Polling
company YouGov
reported that public perception of the brand had noticeably improved in the period following the launch, reversing the decline experienced in the first half of 2007.
– that is, through word of mouth. To this end, Cadbury ended its ten-year sponsorship of the popular soap Coronation Street
.
Public perception of the Cadbury brand had slipped through 2006-7 after a series of public relations
blunders and product recalls. In mid-2006, a number of Cadbury lines were found to contain salmonella
bacteria, originating from a leaking pipe at the company's factory in Marlbrook
. The incident was widely reported in the media, and had a number of knock-on effects: 40 people became ill, and a product recall costing £20 million was initiated. The failure of Cadbury to inform the Food Standards Agency
for five months after the problem was discovered resulted in a £1 million fine from Birmingham's Crown Court
, and the Food Standards Agency
advised the company to improve their "out of date" contamination testing procedures.
Other public relations blunders in the run-up to the campaign included the distribution of a number of Easter eggs containing traces of nuts without nut allergy warnings, a £5 million campaign for Trident chewing gum which was cancelled after complaints that it was offensive, and the temporary closure of Granary Burying Ground
, an historic cemetery near Boston, United States
, as a result of a treasure hunt
organised as a sales promotion
. In mid-2007, Cadbury announced that it would be cutting around 7, 500 jobs. An internal memo
which later leaked revealed that many of the jobs would be moved to Poland, causing an outcry from the manufacturers' trade union
s.
from the public. Much effort was put into making the first advertisement of the new marketing strategy a hit. The creative idea was "founded upon the notion that all communications should be as effortlessly enjoyable as eating the bar itself." Argentine-born Fallon creative director Juan Cabral
, who had created the immensely successful Balls and Paint spots for Sony
's BRAVIA
line of high-definition television
sets, wrote and directed the piece, acting as creative director, art director, copywriter and director. It marked his directorial debut. Other people involved in the campaign at Fallon included senior planner Tamsin Davies, account executive Chris Willingham, executive creative director Richard Flintham, and agency producer Nicky Barnes. Matthew Fone was the production company producer. Actor Garon Michael was hired to fill the central role for his previous work in similar roles, having played great apes in the feature film
s Congo
, Instinct
and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes
.
The gorilla suit
was created by Stan Winston Studios in California
. It took three months to produce, though pieces had been used in a large number of other projects prior to Gorilla. The "fur" of the suit is composed of knotted yak
hairs. The exposed facial features are silicone
, and are moved animatronically
, through 27 remote-controlled motors and several levers. Two technicians were needed, in addition to the actor inside the suit, to produce the range of motions displayed in the commercial. The suit was cooled by ice-water tubing and a handheld fan
pointed at the mouth between takes. While much of the suit had existed prior to the project, several adaptations were made, including custom-made hands for the drum sequence, foam
muscle around the chest and shoulders, a new styling for the pelt, and the addition of a gold tooth, grey hairs, and a studio earpiece to give a more "wizened rock star" appearance.
Shooting took place over several days at Music Bank, the famous rehearsal studios in London. Actor, Michael spent forty hours practising the drumming beforehand, but with vision inside the suit limited to a camera feed piped to a small screen inside the head, precision was almost impossible. Many takes ended with the wooden drum stick
s broken against the rims, sending shards of wood flying off-camera. This, combined with the difficulty of choreographing
the delicate movements of the gorilla head with Michael's acting, meant that 35 takes were required to produce the final 90 second scene.
The spot was lensed by director of photography Daniel Bronks, and edited by Jo Guest at Final Cut, London. Post production was handled by London companies The Moving Picture Company (main body, producer Graham Bird) and Golden Square (end frame, producer Jessica Mankowitz). Sound was designed and arranged by Parv Thind at Wave Studios, London.
of the United Kingdom reality television
show Big Brother
, watched by around 14% of British viewers. Additional 90-second spots were commissioned through September, switching to 10-second cuts in October. The 90-second version was rebroadcast as the final commercial in the break before the final
of the 2007 Rugby World Cup
between England
and South Africa
on 20 October, with the face of the bass drum
emblazoned with an English flag
and the slogan "Bring It Home". Another variant of the advert was broadcast a week earlier before the semi-final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup between England and France
on 13 October, with the face of the bass drum
emblazoned with an English flag
and the slogan "Come On Lads". The spot cost Cadbury an estimated £700,000.
Billboard and print campaigns were set up to run alongside the television commercial, and a sponsorship deal with the "Great Gorilla Run" charity fun run
through London on 23 September 2007 was set up through Sputnik Communications. An online presence was established with a competition on the Glass and a Half Full Productions website offering tickets to Las Vegas
. The Glass and a Half Full Productions website was created by Hyper as part of a UK-focussed digital marketing strategy.
Following the positive reception of the commercial in the United Kingdom and online, Cadbury Canada arranged to show the advertisements in 850 cinemas across Canada throughout November 2007. Further online tie-ins were launched, including an online game
and a competition to win a gorilla suit, a purple drum kit and a year's supply of bananas and Cadbury chocolate bars.
The advertisement premiered on New Zealand television on Monday, 30 June 2008. The advertisement also helped "In the Air Tonight" re-enter the New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart at number three in July 2008 and went on to number one the following week, beating its original 1981 #6 peak.
In August 2008, the ad commenced airing on Australian television
. It was also re-released in the United Kingdom and Ireland with a new backing track (Bonnie Tyler
's "Total Eclipse of the Heart
". According to UK newspaper The Guardian "The new version pays homage to the internet mash-up artist who remixed the original with Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart"
In July 2009, the Cadbury World visitor attraction in Birmingham opened a new area, Advertising Avenue. Towards the end of the attraction, in the Music Shop, a chocolate DJ ('D.J. Choc') invites guests to enjoy four selected clips of favourite Cadbury TV adverts - three of these are broadcast on flatscreen monitors, culminating with the lights in a previously-un-noticed drum booth coming on, with a full-sized anamatronic gorilla drumming to In the Air Tonight.
groups appreciating the ad have been set up, with one, named "We love the Cadbury's drumming gorilla", boasting 200 members. A number of spoofs and parodies
were quickly uploaded by amateurs with the tacit approval of Cadbury, and the British branch of Wonderbra
created and uploaded their own, Dan Cadan-directed version of the advertisement, replacing the gorilla with Wonderbra model (and musician) Jentina
with the Cadbury strapline "A glass and half full of joy" being replaced with "Two cups full of joy." While Cadbury tacitly permitted limited display and modification of the commercial without authorisation, the Wonderbra spot was later removed from YouTube following notification from Phil Collins Limited that the piece infringed their copyright to "In The Air Tonight." Gorilla was further parodied as an introduction to the second half of the 2007 Children in Need special
, with an actor dressed as Pudsey Bear taking the central role. British comedy series The Mighty Boosh
features a drumming gorilla named Bollo, played by Dave Brown
, and the actor appeared as Bollo in a viral video auditioning for the Cadbury advert to promote the third series of the show. This video was later included as an easter egg
on the DVD release of series three
.
There was much speculation when the advert first appeared on how it was made – whether the gorilla was real, animatronic, or a man in a suit. Many believed that Phil Collins
himself was the drummer. When asked about Gorilla, Collins jokingly commented that "Not only is he a better drummer than me, he also has more hair. Can he sing too?" "In the Air Tonight" became a popular online download following its appearance in the commercial, reaching a chart position of 14 within the UK Singles Chart
despite not being given a physical re-release, and becoming the third-most-downloaded track of the day on the iTunes Store
.
Despite reservations that the campaign might prove too abstract and have little effect, Cadbury reported that sales of Dairy Milk had increased 9% from the same period in 2006. Measurements of public perception of the brand carried out by market research
firm YouGov
showed that 20% more people looked favourably on the brand in the period after the advert's general release than in the previous period. Spokesmen for the company have expressed amazement at the success of the campaign. Notwithstanding the fact that the spot was originally only broadcast online and within the United Kingdom, the commercial appeared in the news in many English-speaking countries
such as Canada and Australia, and plans were made for limited expansion of the campaign into these markets. From 23 June 2008, Gorilla was also broadcast in New Zealand with further marketing both on the Cadbury NZ website, and in shopping centres and supermarkets, with models and men in gorilla suits handing out samples of Dairy Milk chocolate.
The advertisement has won numerous awards, including the Epica d’Or for Film 2007, the Grand Cristal at Festival de la Publicité de Méribel, Gold at the British Television Advertising Awards 2008, Gold at the Advertising Creative Circle Awards 2008, Gold at the International ANDY Awards, Black and Yellow Pencils at the D&AD Awards
2008, Gold at the Clio Awards
2008, Bronze at the One Show
2008, the FAB Award 2008, Gold at the Fair Go
Ad Awards 2008, and the Film Grand Prix Lion at Cannes Lions
2008, widely considered the most prestigious prize within the advertising community.
VH1 Classic UK also made an ident which shows a man play "In The Air Tonight", and when the famous drum solo comes on, he holds a pair of drumsticks and bangs the pillows in front of him in the tune of the drum solo.
racing at night to Queen
's "Don't Stop Me Now
".
On 5 September 2008, a second Gorilla advertisement, featuring Bonnie Tyler
's Total Eclipse of the Heart
, was broadcast on Channel 4
during the Big Brother 9 final. The new version paid homage to the internet mash-up artist who remixed the original with Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. This advert was immediately followed by a version of Airport Trucks with Bon Jovi
's Livin' on a Prayer
. In mid March 2009, a version of the advert was shown in Australia, with the gorilla playing the drums along to John Farnham
's "You're the Voice
". This version of the ad was heavily criticised by the Australian public because it was seen as an inferior copy of the original and tried to make use of a potential resurgence of John Farnham due to the singer being mentioned in Cold Play concerts at the time.
In January 2009, a new advert for Cadbury Dairy Milk was launched featuring dancing eyebrows.
September 2009 saw the move to Fairtrade cocoa beans in Cadbury's Dairy Milk, and a new record label based on Gorilla's campaign ("A Glass and a Half") saw the advert/song Zingolo
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
advertising campaign
Advertising campaign
An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication...
launched by Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury Schweppes
Cadbury is a confectionery company owned by Kraft Foods and is the industry's second-largest globally after Mars, Incorporated. Headquartered in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom, the company operates in more than 50 countries worldwide....
in 2007 to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk
Dairy Milk
Dairy Milk is a brand of milk chocolate currently manufactured by Cadbury; except in the United States where it is made by The Hershey Company. It was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1905 and now consists of a number of products...
-brand chocolate
Chocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
. The 90-second television and cinema advertisement, which formed the centrepiece of the £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
6.2 million campaign, was created and directed by Juan Cabral and starred actor Garon Michael. The campaign itself, which comprised appearances on billboards
Billboard (advertising)
A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...
, print newspapers and magazines, television and cinema spots, event sponsorships and an internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
presence, was handled by advertising agency
Advertising agency
An advertising agency or ad agency is a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients. An ad agency is independent from the client and provides an outside point of view to the effort of selling the client's products or services...
Fallon London
Fallon Worldwide
Fallon Worldwide is an international advertising agency headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota with affiliate offices in London, Singapore, Hong Kong, São Paulo and Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Publicis.-History:...
, with the online segment contracted out to Hyper.
The advertisement, which first appeared on British television on 31 August 2007, has since gone on to appear in a number of other countries, including Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. It has been well received by the public – a version uploaded to video sharing
Video sharing
Video hosting services refers to websites or software where users can distribute their video clips. Other sites such as file hosting services image hosting services and social network services might support video sharing as an enhancement to their primary mission, but in general, they are not...
website YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
received 500,000 page views in the first week after the launch. Polling
Opinion poll
An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...
company YouGov
YouGov
YouGov, formerly known as PollingPoint in the United States, is an international internet-based market research firm launched in the UK in May 2000 by Stephan Shakespeare, now Chief Executive Officer, and Nadhim Zahawi...
reported that public perception of the brand had noticeably improved in the period following the launch, reversing the decline experienced in the first half of 2007.
Background
Gorilla formed a major part of the pitch by Fallon London to secure the contract with Cadbury Schweppes in 2006. Their proposal was to step away from pushing the product through traditional advertising means, and instead produce "entertainment pieces" which would appeal to a broader range of consumers and spread through viral marketingViral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
– that is, through word of mouth. To this end, Cadbury ended its ten-year sponsorship of the popular soap Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
.
Public perception of the Cadbury brand had slipped through 2006-7 after a series of public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
blunders and product recalls. In mid-2006, a number of Cadbury lines were found to contain salmonella
Salmonella
Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming, predominantly motile enterobacteria with diameters around 0.7 to 1.5 µm, lengths from 2 to 5 µm, and flagella which grade in all directions . They are chemoorganotrophs, obtaining their energy from oxidation and reduction...
bacteria, originating from a leaking pipe at the company's factory in Marlbrook
Marlbrook, Herefordshire
Marlbrook is a village in Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Lugg and the A49 road, south of Leominster and north of Hereford. Just south of the village is the junction of the A49 with the A417 road towards Ledbury and Gloucester....
. The incident was widely reported in the media, and had a number of knock-on effects: 40 people became ill, and a product recall costing £20 million was initiated. The failure of Cadbury to inform the Food Standards Agency
Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food throughout the United Kingdom and is led by a board appointed to act in the public interest...
for five months after the problem was discovered resulted in a £1 million fine from Birmingham's Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
, and the Food Standards Agency
Food Standards Agency
The Food Standards Agency is a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for protecting public health in relation to food throughout the United Kingdom and is led by a board appointed to act in the public interest...
advised the company to improve their "out of date" contamination testing procedures.
Other public relations blunders in the run-up to the campaign included the distribution of a number of Easter eggs containing traces of nuts without nut allergy warnings, a £5 million campaign for Trident chewing gum which was cancelled after complaints that it was offensive, and the temporary closure of Granary Burying Ground
Granary Burying Ground
Founded in 1660, the Granary Burying Ground in Massachusetts is the city of Boston's third-oldest cemetery. Located on Tremont Street, it is the final resting place for many notable Revolutionary War-era patriots, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence, Paul Revere and the five...
, an historic cemetery near Boston, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as a result of a treasure hunt
Treasure hunt
A treasure hunt is one of many different types of games which can have one or more players who try to find hidden articles, locations or places by using a series of clues. This is a fictional activity; treasure hunting can also be a real life activity. Treasure hunt games may be an indoor or...
organised as a sales promotion
Sales promotion
Sales promotion is one of the four aspects of promotional mix. Media and non-media marketing communication are employed for a pre-determined, limited time to increase consumer demand, stimulate market demand or improve product availability...
. In mid-2007, Cadbury announced that it would be cutting around 7, 500 jobs. An internal memo
Memorandum
A memorandum is from the Latin verbal phrase memorandum est, the gerundive form of the verb memoro, "to mention, call to mind, recount, relate", which means "It must be remembered ..."...
which later leaked revealed that many of the jobs would be moved to Poland, causing an outcry from the manufacturers' trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s.
Production
It was hoped that the new campaign would serve to boost sales within the UK and prompt higher brand engagementBrand engagement
Brand engagement is a term loosely used to describe the process of forming an attachment between a person and a brand. It comprises one aspect of brand management...
from the public. Much effort was put into making the first advertisement of the new marketing strategy a hit. The creative idea was "founded upon the notion that all communications should be as effortlessly enjoyable as eating the bar itself." Argentine-born Fallon creative director Juan Cabral
Juan cabral
Juan Cabral is well-known, Argentinian, creative director known for directing several globally-renowned television commercials, such as the Cadbury's 'Gorilla' advert and Sony Bravia's 'Paint', 'Balls' & 'Rabbits' advert...
, who had created the immensely successful Balls and Paint spots for Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's BRAVIA
BRAVIA
BRAVIA is a Sony brand used to market its high-definition LCD televisions, projection TVs and front projectors and for the PlayStation 3 , along with its home cinema range under the sub-brand BRAVIA Theatre. The BRAVIA name is an acronym of "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture"...
line of high-definition television
High-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
sets, wrote and directed the piece, acting as creative director, art director, copywriter and director. It marked his directorial debut. Other people involved in the campaign at Fallon included senior planner Tamsin Davies, account executive Chris Willingham, executive creative director Richard Flintham, and agency producer Nicky Barnes. Matthew Fone was the production company producer. Actor Garon Michael was hired to fill the central role for his previous work in similar roles, having played great apes in the feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s Congo
Congo (film)
Congo is a 1995 action adventure film, based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It was directed by Frank Marshall and stars Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Tim Curry, Ernie Hudson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Grant Heslov, and Joe Don Baker. The film was released on June 9, 1995 by...
, Instinct
Instinct (film)
Instinct is a 1999 film starring Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding, Jr., George Dzundza, Donald Sutherland, Kim Cattrall and Maura Tierney. It was very loosely inspired by Ishmael, a novel by Daniel Quinn. In the United States, the film had the working title Ishmael...
and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes (2001 film)
Planet of the Apes is a 2001 American science fiction film, based on Pierre Boulle's novel and a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. Tim Burton directed the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, and Estella Warren. It tells the...
.
The gorilla suit
Gorilla suit
Gorilla suits or ape suits are full-bodied costumes resembling gorillas or other large primates.Gorilla suits have been used both to represent real gorillas in film and on stage, and also as a source of humour...
was created by Stan Winston Studios in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. It took three months to produce, though pieces had been used in a large number of other projects prior to Gorilla. The "fur" of the suit is composed of knotted yak
Yak
The yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population...
hairs. The exposed facial features are silicone
Silicone
Silicones are inert, synthetic compounds with a variety of forms and uses. Typically heat-resistant and rubber-like, they are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medical applications , cookware, and insulation....
, and are moved animatronically
Animatronics
Animatronics is the use of mechatronics to create machines which seem animate rather than robotic. Animatronic creations include animals , plants and even mythical creatures...
, through 27 remote-controlled motors and several levers. Two technicians were needed, in addition to the actor inside the suit, to produce the range of motions displayed in the commercial. The suit was cooled by ice-water tubing and a handheld fan
Fan (mechanical)
A mechanical fan is a machine used to create flow within a fluid, typically a gas such as air.A fan consists of a rotating arrangement of vanes or blades which act on the air. Usually, it is contained within some form of housing or case. This may direct the airflow or increase safety by preventing...
pointed at the mouth between takes. While much of the suit had existed prior to the project, several adaptations were made, including custom-made hands for the drum sequence, foam
Foam
-Definition:A foam is a substance that is formed by trapping gas in a liquid or solid in a divided form, i.e. by forming gas regions inside liquid regions, leading to different kinds of dispersed media...
muscle around the chest and shoulders, a new styling for the pelt, and the addition of a gold tooth, grey hairs, and a studio earpiece to give a more "wizened rock star" appearance.
Shooting took place over several days at Music Bank, the famous rehearsal studios in London. Actor, Michael spent forty hours practising the drumming beforehand, but with vision inside the suit limited to a camera feed piped to a small screen inside the head, precision was almost impossible. Many takes ended with the wooden drum stick
Drum stick
A percussion mallet is an object used to beat drums and other percussion instruments. Some specialized mallets are called beaters, drumsticks.Note: See Rute .-Drum sticks:...
s broken against the rims, sending shards of wood flying off-camera. This, combined with the difficulty of choreographing
Choreography
Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
the delicate movements of the gorilla head with Michael's acting, meant that 35 takes were required to produce the final 90 second scene.
The spot was lensed by director of photography Daniel Bronks, and edited by Jo Guest at Final Cut, London. Post production was handled by London companies The Moving Picture Company (main body, producer Graham Bird) and Golden Square (end frame, producer Jessica Mankowitz). Sound was designed and arranged by Parv Thind at Wave Studios, London.
Release and marketing
The television premiere of the advertisement was on Friday 31 August 2007, during the finale of the eighth seriesBig Brother 2007 (UK)
Big Brother 2007 was the eighth series of the United Kingdom reality television programme Big Brother, airing on Channel 4, with a number of closely associated programmes also airing on E4....
of the United Kingdom reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
show Big Brother
Big Brother (UK)
Big Brother UK is the British version of the Dutch Big Brother television format, which takes its name from the character in George Orwell's 1948 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four...
, watched by around 14% of British viewers. Additional 90-second spots were commissioned through September, switching to 10-second cuts in October. The 90-second version was rebroadcast as the final commercial in the break before the final
2007 Rugby World Cup Final
The 2007 Rugby World Cup Final was a rugby union match, played on Saturday, 20 October 2007 at the Stade de France, Saint-Denis, Paris. The match determined the winner of the 2007 Rugby World Cup and the de facto world champions for the next four years...
of the 2007 Rugby World Cup
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003,...
between England
England national rugby union team
The England national rugby union team represents England in rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales. They have won this championship on 26 occasions, 12 times winning the Grand Slam, making them the most successful team in...
and South Africa
South Africa national rugby union team
The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...
on 20 October, with the face of the bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
emblazoned with an English flag
Flag of England
The Flag of England is the St George's Cross . The red cross appeared as an emblem of England during the Middle Ages and the Crusades and is one of the earliest known emblems representing England...
and the slogan "Bring It Home". Another variant of the advert was broadcast a week earlier before the semi-final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup between England and France
France national rugby union team
The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales in the Six Nations Championship. They have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams...
on 13 October, with the face of the bass drum
Bass drum
Bass drums are percussion instruments that can vary in size and are used in several musical genres. Three major types of bass drums can be distinguished. The type usually seen or heard in orchestral, ensemble or concert band music is the orchestral, or concert bass drum . It is the largest drum of...
emblazoned with an English flag
Flag of England
The Flag of England is the St George's Cross . The red cross appeared as an emblem of England during the Middle Ages and the Crusades and is one of the earliest known emblems representing England...
and the slogan "Come On Lads". The spot cost Cadbury an estimated £700,000.
Billboard and print campaigns were set up to run alongside the television commercial, and a sponsorship deal with the "Great Gorilla Run" charity fun run
Fun run
A fun run is a friendly race that involves either road running or cross country running with participants taking part for their own enjoyment rather than competition. A fun run will usually be held to raise funds for a charity, with sponsors providing the revenue to cover organisational costs...
through London on 23 September 2007 was set up through Sputnik Communications. An online presence was established with a competition on the Glass and a Half Full Productions website offering tickets to Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. The Glass and a Half Full Productions website was created by Hyper as part of a UK-focussed digital marketing strategy.
Following the positive reception of the commercial in the United Kingdom and online, Cadbury Canada arranged to show the advertisements in 850 cinemas across Canada throughout November 2007. Further online tie-ins were launched, including an online game
Online game
An online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...
and a competition to win a gorilla suit, a purple drum kit and a year's supply of bananas and Cadbury chocolate bars.
The advertisement premiered on New Zealand television on Monday, 30 June 2008. The advertisement also helped "In the Air Tonight" re-enter the New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart at number three in July 2008 and went on to number one the following week, beating its original 1981 #6 peak.
In August 2008, the ad commenced airing on Australian television
Australian television
Television in Australia began experimentally as early as 1929 in Melbourne with stations 3DB and 3UZ using the Radiovision system by Gilbert Miles and Donal McDonald, and later from other locations, such as Brisbane in 1934....
. It was also re-released in the United Kingdom and Ireland with a new backing track (Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, most notable for her hits in the 1970s and 1980s including "It's a Heartache", "Holding Out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".-Early life:...
's "Total Eclipse of the Heart
Total Eclipse of the Heart
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a song written and produced by Jim Steinman and recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for her fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed of Night...
". According to UK newspaper The Guardian "The new version pays homage to the internet mash-up artist who remixed the original with Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart"
In July 2009, the Cadbury World visitor attraction in Birmingham opened a new area, Advertising Avenue. Towards the end of the attraction, in the Music Shop, a chocolate DJ ('D.J. Choc') invites guests to enjoy four selected clips of favourite Cadbury TV adverts - three of these are broadcast on flatscreen monitors, culminating with the lights in a previously-un-noticed drum booth coming on, with a full-sized anamatronic gorilla drumming to In the Air Tonight.
Reception
The campaign was well-received by the British public. The commercial was uploaded to video sharing website YouTube shortly after it first aired, and was viewed over 500,000 times in the first week. As of November 2007, it has been viewed over six million times across a large number of video sharing webhosts. 70 FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
groups appreciating the ad have been set up, with one, named "We love the Cadbury's drumming gorilla", boasting 200 members. A number of spoofs and parodies
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
were quickly uploaded by amateurs with the tacit approval of Cadbury, and the British branch of Wonderbra
Wonderbra
The Wonderbra is a type of push-up underwire brassiere that gained worldwide prominence in the 1990s. Although the Wonderbra name was first trademarked in the U.S. in 1935, the brand was developed in Canada. Moses Nadler, founder and majority owner of the Canadian Lady Corset Company, licensed the...
created and uploaded their own, Dan Cadan-directed version of the advertisement, replacing the gorilla with Wonderbra model (and musician) Jentina
Jentina
Jentina Rose Chapman professionally known as Jentina, is a British Hip hop/R&B singer, rapper, songwriter and model of Gypsy descent.-Biography:...
with the Cadbury strapline "A glass and half full of joy" being replaced with "Two cups full of joy." While Cadbury tacitly permitted limited display and modification of the commercial without authorisation, the Wonderbra spot was later removed from YouTube following notification from Phil Collins Limited that the piece infringed their copyright to "In The Air Tonight." Gorilla was further parodied as an introduction to the second half of the 2007 Children in Need special
Children in Need 2007
Children in Need 2007 was a campaign held in the United Kingdom to raise money for Children in Need. It culminated in a live broadcast on BBC One on the evening of Friday 16 November, through to the morning of Saturday 17 November. The broadcast was hosted by Terry Wogan and Fearne Cotton, joined...
, with an actor dressed as Pudsey Bear taking the central role. British comedy series The Mighty Boosh
The Mighty Boosh
The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of twenty television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the...
features a drumming gorilla named Bollo, played by Dave Brown
Dave Brown (comedian)
Dave Brown is a British comedian, choreographer designer and photographer.He is most famous for his work with The Mighty Boosh.His most prominent role is that of Bollo the ape...
, and the actor appeared as Bollo in a viral video auditioning for the Cadbury advert to promote the third series of the show. This video was later included as an easter egg
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
on the DVD release of series three
The Mighty Boosh (series 3)
The Mighty Booshs third series was originally broadcast between 15 November 2007 and 20 December 2007. The series features five main cast members; Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Rich Fulcher, Michael Fielding and Dave Brown. The third series revolves around Howard Moon and Vince Noir , and the...
.
There was much speculation when the advert first appeared on how it was made – whether the gorilla was real, animatronic, or a man in a suit. Many believed that Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
himself was the drummer. When asked about Gorilla, Collins jokingly commented that "Not only is he a better drummer than me, he also has more hair. Can he sing too?" "In the Air Tonight" became a popular online download following its appearance in the commercial, reaching a chart position of 14 within the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
despite not being given a physical re-release, and becoming the third-most-downloaded track of the day on the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
.
Despite reservations that the campaign might prove too abstract and have little effect, Cadbury reported that sales of Dairy Milk had increased 9% from the same period in 2006. Measurements of public perception of the brand carried out by market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
firm YouGov
YouGov
YouGov, formerly known as PollingPoint in the United States, is an international internet-based market research firm launched in the UK in May 2000 by Stephan Shakespeare, now Chief Executive Officer, and Nadhim Zahawi...
showed that 20% more people looked favourably on the brand in the period after the advert's general release than in the previous period. Spokesmen for the company have expressed amazement at the success of the campaign. Notwithstanding the fact that the spot was originally only broadcast online and within the United Kingdom, the commercial appeared in the news in many English-speaking countries
Anglosphere
Anglosphere is a neologism which refers to those nations with English as the most common language. The term can be used more specifically to refer to those nations which share certain characteristics within their cultures based on a linguistic heritage, through being former British colonies...
such as Canada and Australia, and plans were made for limited expansion of the campaign into these markets. From 23 June 2008, Gorilla was also broadcast in New Zealand with further marketing both on the Cadbury NZ website, and in shopping centres and supermarkets, with models and men in gorilla suits handing out samples of Dairy Milk chocolate.
The advertisement has won numerous awards, including the Epica d’Or for Film 2007, the Grand Cristal at Festival de la Publicité de Méribel, Gold at the British Television Advertising Awards 2008, Gold at the Advertising Creative Circle Awards 2008, Gold at the International ANDY Awards, Black and Yellow Pencils at the D&AD Awards
D&AD
Design and Art Direction is a British educational charity which exists to promote excellence in design and advertising...
2008, Gold at the Clio Awards
Clio Awards
The Clio Awards are annual awards bestowed to reward innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design and communication. The categories include work in nearly all types of media, and the judges are advertising professionals from around the world....
2008, Bronze at the One Show
The One Club
Founded in New York City as The One Club for Art & Copy, The One Club produces three annual award competitions: One Show, One Show Design, and One Show Interactive...
2008, the FAB Award 2008, Gold at the Fair Go
Fair Go
Fair Go is a New Zealand consumer affairs television program now co-hosted by Gordon Harcourt and Alison Mau. First aired in 1977, it is one of New Zealand's longest-running and highest-rated programmes, frequently placed high in the New Zealand TV Guide list of most viewed programs.Fair Go...
Ad Awards 2008, and the Film Grand Prix Lion at Cannes Lions
Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is a global event for those working in advertising and related fields. The seven-day festival, incorporating the awarding of the Lions awards, is held yearly at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France...
2008, widely considered the most prestigious prize within the advertising community.
VH1 Classic UK also made an ident which shows a man play "In The Air Tonight", and when the famous drum solo comes on, he holds a pair of drumsticks and bangs the pillows in front of him in the tune of the drum solo.
Sequels and remixes
On 30 March 2008, Cadbury began rolling out the sequel to the Gorilla campaign. Using many of the same ideas, Airport Trucks, again written and directed by Juan Cabral, features heavily customised airport ground support equipmentGround Support Equipment
Ground support equipment is the support equipment found at an airport, usually on the ramp, the servicing area by the terminal. This equipment is used to service the aircraft between flights. As its name implies, GSE is there to support the operations of aircraft on the ground...
racing at night to Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
's "Don't Stop Me Now
Don't Stop Me Now
"Don't Stop Me Now" is a song by English rock group Queen, featured on their 1978 album Jazz. Written by vocalist Freddie Mercury, it was recorded in August/September 1978 at Super Bear Studios in Berre-les-Alpes , France, and is the twelfth track on the album.Musically, the song is based around...
".
On 5 September 2008, a second Gorilla advertisement, featuring Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler
Bonnie Tyler is a Welsh singer, most notable for her hits in the 1970s and 1980s including "It's a Heartache", "Holding Out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart".-Early life:...
's Total Eclipse of the Heart
Total Eclipse of the Heart
"Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a song written and produced by Jim Steinman and recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler for her fifth studio album, Faster Than the Speed of Night...
, was broadcast on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
during the Big Brother 9 final. The new version paid homage to the internet mash-up artist who remixed the original with Tyler's Total Eclipse of the Heart. This advert was immediately followed by a version of Airport Trucks with Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
's Livin' on a Prayer
Livin' on a Prayer
"Livin' on a Prayer" is Bon Jovi's second single from their Slippery When Wet album. Written by Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora with Desmond Child, the single, released in late 1986, was well-received at both rock and pop radio and its music video was given heavy rotation at MTV, giving the band...
. In mid March 2009, a version of the advert was shown in Australia, with the gorilla playing the drums along to John Farnham
John Farnham
John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham , is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as...
's "You're the Voice
You're the Voice
As a lead promotion for their first live album Rock the House Live! in 1991, US rock band Heart released their live version of "You're the Voice" as a single. It was captured during the US leg of their Brigade world tour in November 1990...
". This version of the ad was heavily criticised by the Australian public because it was seen as an inferior copy of the original and tried to make use of a potential resurgence of John Farnham due to the singer being mentioned in Cold Play concerts at the time.
In January 2009, a new advert for Cadbury Dairy Milk was launched featuring dancing eyebrows.
September 2009 saw the move to Fairtrade cocoa beans in Cadbury's Dairy Milk, and a new record label based on Gorilla's campaign ("A Glass and a Half") saw the advert/song Zingolo
Zingolo
"Zingolo" is the name of both a television advertisement for Cadbury's Dairy Milk in the UK in September 2009, and a single by Tinny released the same month, which features in the advertisement....
.
External links
- Glass and a Half Full Productions website showing the Gorilla advert and its sequel (html site)
- Gorilla direct download from the above site (in WMVWindows Media Video'Windows Media Video is a video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other formats, such as WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater...
format) - GoGorilla.ca, the website launched as part of the Canadian cinema campaign
- The WonderBra spoof spot at Break.com
- Children in Need tribute at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
(watermarked) - GaronMichael.com, the homepage of the gorilla performer
- Original Gorilla Eclipse of the Heart Remix, by javiermalagon.
- Cadbury Trucks commercial with Bon Jovi song.
- Music Bank studios where Gorilla TV commercial was rehearsed and filmed.
- http://www.matthewfone.co.uk Producer.