Cadbury looks to airports for 'gorilla' follow-up

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 25-Mar-08, 09:15

LONDON - Cadbury has revealed its much-anticipated follow-up to the 'gorilla' Dairy Milk ad, called 'airport trucks', will break this Saturday.

The new ad, which like "gorilla" has been created by Fallon, is described as a "magical airport truck race" in which a small one-man vehicle plays the role of an underdog in a midnight race against an assortment of bigger and faster trucks, such as a baggage transporter and motorised stairs.

The ad is light-hearted and fun in line with its predecessor, but unlike "gorilla" it will not feature a Phil Collins track.

Instead, "airport trucks" will feature an unnamed soft rock track from the late 1970s or early 1980s, which is in the process of being chosen for the soundtrack. The ad was written by Juan Cabral, the Fallon creative director who also created "gorilla".

Tony Bilsborough, a spokesman for Cadbury, said: "We can confirm that we're nearly ready to air the sequel to 'gorilla'. Like 'gorilla' and Cadbury Dairy Milk itself, it's designed to put a smile on viewers' faces.

"All the trucks have 'pimped' themselves to show their unique character, ready for the race of their lives. Phil Collins fans will be disappointed to hear that we haven't plumped for another of his tracks but we can say it's another great retro anthem."

The "gorilla" ad, which featured a man in a gorilla suit playing drums to Phil Collins' 'In the Air Tonight', quickly became a cult hit last year.

Cadbury partly attributed a 5% sales lift during 2007 to its popularity, while Sky reported that 58,000 households watched an extended version of the ad through the red button during the space of a fortnight.

Fallon was awarded the Cadbury brief, which later led to the "gorilla" ad, in February of last year as exclusively revealed by Brand Republic.

Comments

Lucy Barrett - 25/03/2008

I am bored of this ad already, and yet no one has actually seen it.

Jeremy Lee - 25/03/2008

Gorilla was OK for a novelty ad, but isn't this self-congratulation getting a bit out of hand?

James Cooke - 25/03/2008

It's time for Cadburys to stop messing around with comms and give the world what it needs after Easter.... diet chocolate.

RACHEL DUTTON - 25/03/2008

gorilla was great cos noone had a clue what was happening and what on earth it was for... now we know before weve even seen it... its looking like disappointment already. (im still kinda lookin forward to it though.)

samantha brown - 26/03/2008

I cant wait to see the new Cadburys ad. Its been long awaited. I really hope its lives up to my expectations.

Jeremy Lee - 26/03/2008

Really? I thought it was rather superficial and lacked any great insight

Jonathan Godson - 26/03/2008

Shame that Cadbury's spend so much time and money promoting a 'man in a gorilla suit' and now airport vehicles 'pimped up', to promote sales of chocolate that is not guaranteed free from 'slave trade' cocoa. Cadbury's started out as a philanphropic company with social pioneering so why not make CDM Fair Trade? With reported UK sales of £1m every day this could make such an impact on the cocoa industry (and the rest of us could feel even better about scoffing it!) The chocolate industry agreed in 2001 to support the International Cocoa Initiative against slave trade cocoa production but appear to have done little since to support this. No mention of slave free or Fair Trade appears on the Cadbury's web site. Forgive my cynicism but getting excited about the follow up to a bloke in a gorilla costume rings somewhat hollow when Cadbury's seem unable to address this issue. John Cadbury would surely turn in his grave.