Halfords Climbs Down Over Chimp Advertising
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has received 126 complaints over a Halfords ad, which featured chimpanzees dressed as humans.
The ad, which included the strapline: “with our deals you pay peanuts so we thought we’d give you monkeys” showed chimpanzees dressed in tracksuits riding bikes and ‘working’ on cars.
The ad provoked a flurry of complaints from viewers, as well as from People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (PETA) and the Captive Animals Prevention Society (CAPS).
The complainants objected to the ad on the grounds that the chimpanzees used in the ads could be seen “grinning”, which for chimpanzees is an expression of fear rather than pleasure. They also felt that showing chimpanzees dressed in clothes and performing tricks outside their natural environment was degrading and exploitative, and detracted from the fact they are an endangered wild species.
Complainants also argued that the ads could encourage captive breeding and lead people to think that chimps are suitable pets. PETA also claimed that training chimpanzees to perform in the way shown in the ads tends to involve them being taken from their mothers at a young age and taught using cruel methods.
CAPS, in turn, called for a boycott of Halfords products and organised protests outside the shops to draw attention to the ads.
According to their spokesperson: “Chimpanzees are an endangered species. To reduce them to items of ridicule is totally unacceptable. It sends out mixed messages to viewers too. If dressed up chimps are seen on TV advertising products and become familiar to the public, then holidaymakers on Spanish beaches may not react when they see Spanish photographers using chimps as props. We should send out a strong message to companies using dressed up apes on TV that this is not acceptable.”
The advertisers argued that the commercial was filmed under the ITC’s guidelines and that the animals were trained to grin and were not scared or hurt during the filming. They also pointed to a recent poll by ICM which revealed that the PG Tips chimps were the favourite British ad characters of all time.
The ITC concluded that although it understood that the complainants has a strong belief that the use of chimpanzees in filming was wrong, it did not consider that the ad had broken any of its guidelines and dismissed the complaint.
However, Halfords has bowed to pressure from CAPS and has confirmed the ad will not be shown again after the end of this month and that no chimps will be used in future commercials. According to CAPS: “This will send a strong message to other companies that it not acceptable to use animals in advertising.”
ITC: 0207 306 7743 www.itc.org.uk
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