Gorilla is a British advertising campaign launched by the advertising agency Fallon London on behalf of Cadbury Schweppes in 2007, to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk brand chocolate. The centrepiece of the campaign was a 90-second television and cinema advertisement, supported by related media purchases in billboards, magazines and newspapers, as well as sponsored events and an organised internet presence (contracted out to Hyper).Cadbury risks Phil Collins revival with gorilla drummer, Brand Republic, 30 August 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2007. The total cost of the campaign is estimated at £6.2 million. The central television advertisement was created and directed by Juan Cabral and starred the actor Garon Michael.
The advertisement, which first appeared on British television on 31 August 2007, has since appeared in Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, among other countries, to popular acclaim. A version uploaded to the video sharing website YouTube received 500,000 page views in the first week after the launch.Cadbury's drumming gorilla spawns Facebook group, Brand Republic, 11 September 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2007. The 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.
Description The advertisement consists of a simple, 90-second tracking shot across a music studio, with Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" playing in the background. A large gorilla sitting at a drum kit plays along with the song's famous drum fill.
Background Gorilla formed a major part of the pitch by Fallon London to draw Cadbury Schweppes away from its established contract with Carat in 2006. Their proposal was to step away from traditional advertisements to a middle-aged, middle-class demographic. Instead, Fallon proposed the production of "entertainment pieces" aimed at a broader range of consumers and spread through viral marketing – that is, through word of mouth.Spot the link between a gorilla and chocolate , The Independent, 14 May 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2007. To this end, Cadbury ended its ten-year sponsorship of the popular soap Coronation Street."Coronation Street loses sponsor", BBC News, 14 November 2006. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
Public perception of the Cadbury brand had slipped in the 2006-7 period, following a series of public relations blunders and product recalls. In mid-2006, a leaking pipe in the company's Marlbrook factory led to 40 cases of salmonella exposure"Cadbury fined £1M over salmonella", BBC News, 16 July 2007. Retrieved 8 November 2007. and a product recall costing the company over £20 million.Walsh, F; "Product recall costs Cadbury £20M", The Guardian, 2 August 2006. Retrieved 6 November 2007. Cadbury's failure to inform the Food Standards Agency for five months led to an additional £1 million fine from the Crown Court in Birmingham.Cadbury issues Easter egg recall, BBC News, 10 February 2007. Retrieved 8 November 2007. In the wake of the scandal, the Food Standards Agency advised the company to improve its "out of date" contamination testing procedures."Cadbury agrees to improve tests", BBC News, 6 July 2006. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
Other public relations blunders in the run-up to the campaign included the distribution of chocolate Easter eggs with traces of nuts without nut allergy warnings, the cancellation of a £5 million campaign for Trident chewing gum after complaints of offensive marketing material, and the temporary closure of Granary Burying Ground, a historic cemetery near Boston, United States, following a treasure hunt organised as a sales promotion."Cadbury sorry over graves stunt", BBC News, 25 February 2007. Retrieved 8 November 2007. In mid-2007, Cadbury announced that it would be cutting around 7,500 jobs.Peston, R; "Cadburys Reorganisation", BBC News, 19 June 2007. Retrieved 8 November 2007. A leaked internal memorandum revealed that many of the jobs would be moved to Poland, causing an outcry from the workers' trade unions.Prosser, D; "Union slams Cadbury's shift to Poland as 700 jobs are cut" , The Independent, 4 October 2007. Retrieved 8 November 2007."Cadbury Goes Ape", PR Week UK, 26 October 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2007.
Production In the wake of these scandals, the success of Fallon's first media campaign was critical to the continued partnership with Cadbury, and the centrepiece television advertisement received the brunt of the attention. The central idea was "founded upon the notion that all communications should be as effortlessly enjoyable as eating the bar itself"."Fallon and MPC 'Go Ape' for Cadbury's Dairy Milk", The Moving Picture Company. Retrieved (via Internet Archive) 23 February 2009). Fallon's Argentine-born creative director Juan Cabral, whose credits include 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 was his directorial debut. Supporting Cabral were the senior planner Tamsin Davies, the account executive Chris Willingham, the executive creative director Richard Flintham and the agency producer Nicky Barnes. Matthew Fone was the production company producer. The actor Garon Michael was hired to fill the central role for his previous work in similar roles, having played great apes in the feature films Congo, Instinct and the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes."I’m the man in the ’airy suit", Metro, 10 September 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2007.
Gorilla took three months to produce, despite borrowing substantial parts of the set and props from a number of previous projects. The gorilla suit itself was woven from a "fur" of knotted yak hairs, with an animatronic silicone face. The face itself included 27 remote-controlled motors operated by a pair of technicians, with gross movements handled by Garon Michaels. 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 before 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.
Shooting took place over several days at Music Bank, the rehearsal studios in London.
The spot was filmed by the director of photography Daniel Bronks who inspired the concept when working with Juan Cabral on a previous project, and edited by Joe Guest at Final Cut, London. Post production was done by the 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 series of the United Kingdom reality television show Big Brother, watched by around 14% of British viewers. Additional 90-second spots were commissioned during 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."Hit or Miss: Cadbury drums up a Dairy Milk hit", PR Week UK, 14 September 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2007. An online presence was established with a competition on the Glass and a Half Full Productions website offering tickets to Las Vegas.Glass and a Half Full Productions. Retrieved 1 November 2007. 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 during 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.Brown, D; "Drumming gorilla hits Canadian movie screens", Marketing Magazine, 5 November 2007. Retrieved 8 November 2007.
The advertisement was 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 it went on to number one the following week, beating its original 1981 #6 peak.
In August 2008, the advertisement began 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 the 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 animatronic gorilla drumming to "In the Air Tonight".
Reception