Thursday, 16 January 2014

Critique: Cadbury's Gorilla

The Cadbury's Gorilla advertising campaign was launched by Cadbury Schweppes on the 31st August 2007. 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 did not only appear on screen. Following on from the television and cinematic appearances, the Gorilla advert was seen in newspapers, on billboards and appeared at a number of sponsorship events and internet presentations.

 The advert has also won numerous awards, including:-

  • Epica d'Or for Film 2007
  • Grand Cristal at Festival de la Publicité de Méribel 
  • Gold at The British Television Advertising Awards 2008
  • Gold at The British 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 One Show 2008
  • The FAB Award 2008
  • Gold at The Fair Go Ad Awards 2008
  • Film Grand Prix Lion at Cannes Lions 2008

The famous Gorilla

 The advert begins with the Cadbury tagline "a GLASS and a HALF FULL PRODUCTION" in the middle of the screen, with the background panning in the right direction. The first colours we see are white and purple, which are the two significant and signature colours of all Cadbury products. This shows that Cadbury's as a whole are advertising their whole company, and not just one specific feature. The second frame of the advert is an extreme close-up shot of the gorilla's face. This shows it to be extremely realistic, and seeing as the audience (when first viewing) will not know the concept of the advert, it will persuade them to keep watching. For approximately 30-40 seconds, we see the gorilla acting completely human, as if he's getting into 'the zone'. At this point, we still don't know that there is a drum kit in front of him, and he's about to start playing it. After about 1 minute in, the gorilla starts playing the drums to the theme of the song, which is In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins.

Screen caps of four key shots of the advertisement

 The lighting throughout the advertisement doesn't change at all, which leaves us as the audience focusing more on the camera movement, angles and shots. The mid shots of the gorilla on the drums shows just how a human would sit when playing this instrument. In 'real life' anyway, gorilla's are known to be the most human-like animal, and this is why this advert is highly amusing to watch. The lifelike image of the gorilla's hands and feet portray the human-like features. 
Gorilla - The famous Cadbury advertisement


 Focusing more on the soundtrack of the advertisement. In The Air Tonight is a worldwide famous single written and sung by Phil Collins, who was a famous singer/song-writer and peaked mostly in the 80s. As this is quite an old school song, the advert is likely to attract people around the ages of 43-60, and maybe, even more specifically, people of a British ethnicity as this single was released in the UK. 
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight album cover
Maybe I'm reading too in-between the lines, however the album artwork stood out for me. It was by fluke that I found this in an article I was reading. The album cover shows singer Phil Collins in an extreme close-up shot, which resembles the angle of the gorilla in the advert itself. Fans of Phil Collins may (or may not?!) pick this up, but somehow I did. Extreme close-up shots are used on a number of album covers these days and it's a common thing to see.

 With this advertisement raising profit shares in Cadbury's as much as 5% and over 500,000 people watching it in two weeks, it was a real hit with both Cadbury's and the audience. In a lighthearted conversation with U Talk Marketing, the company's chief executive, Todd Stitzer, joked that "For the Chinese in 2007, it was the year of the pig. For Cadbury's, it was the year of the gorilla." He then concluded with "While it had a remarkable impact on the commercial dynamics it also had a huge impact on the people within the company, bucking people up, helping them have a bit more fun. That's worth a lot."

 I really like the concept of this advert as I think it is an extremely unique way to get the audiences' attention for such a short period of time. Although the advert is 1 min 30 secs long, it really emphasises the key message in an indirect manor. There is no narration or speech (apart from the song) in the entire feature, and this is a factor that results in people being glued to viewing it. It helps break that 'awkward silence' boundary.

I guess the typical question being asked will obviously be "What on earth has a gorilla got to do with Cadbury's!?". This will stir the public opinions and create the word-of-mouth technique and get people talking; "Did you see the gorilla advert last night?" or "OMG how cool is the new Cadbury's advert?!". It's good for all ages. The song will attract the older generation and the drumming gorilla will attract the younger generation. 
Would you refuse to buy a chocolate bar off of a Gorilla?
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