The Cadbury Gorilla

What is all the fuzz about with the Cadbury Gorilla? When I first saw it about 8 months ago I thought it was very stupid. Then people began talking about it, blogs were being written, Creativity and other important publications were writing articles on it, and the I thought maybe I was stupid. But no. I couldn't be. It's only a fucking gorilla playing the drums. Oh yeah, and then it announces chocolates. At least I'll give them the sense of humor for picking the song.

So then I thought it was me who never got it, since I realized that the commercial won important prizes like the ANDY's, London, and now it won a gold CLIO. That pretty much lines it up for a metal prize in Cannes. Wow. But no, it wasn't me, I saw it again, and again and this is what I came up with.

It's a gorilla playing the drums trying to sell chocolates.

Alright, so advertising doesn't have to be all 50's style sell-the-product and talk about all the benefits for 60 seconds. I agree. But say something for God's sake. You have a brand, who is trying to sell chocolates, and they spend their air time and money on something like this? I just don't buy it.
Maybe it's me, maybe I'm too ignorant, maybe I don't know shit. But I'll dare to make a judgment by saying that those who have awarded this commercial or those "we're very creative" types who love it don't even know why they do it. "Because it's cool" they say. Cool? What's cool? Is this what we have come to? What is it doing for the brand? What is it doing for a consumer? Its' not even funny! I understand that there can be ads that just aware about the product and merely entertain, but at least they try to say something. How is a fucking gorilla helping the product?

I might sound old school. But this is another case of advertising done for advertisers. It's only for us nerds in blogs and judges in award show to see and understand. Real people, yes, the same ones who don't give a damn about advertising or how artsy and creative we think we might be, those people, they don't get it, they don't like it. And, sometimes sadly, they are the ultimate judges of out work.

Anyway, if you still doubt my intelligence, please see the ad for yourself. Don't be deceived, it might pull a smile off at first, specially when the animal starts playing the drums. But then, it's all vacuum.