A little while ago, Dodge got into trouble with PeTA for a regional ad they did for a dealership promotion that had a monkey in an Evel Kneivel costume in it, for just a second, at the end of the spot. PeTA complained that this was monkey abuse or slavery or whatever, and so when the complaint went public, the ad agency found a brilliant solution in digitally painting out the monkey and saying it was an “invisible monkey”. That quick, clever response must have temporarily defanged PeTA, since they didn’t seem to be quite so public in criticizing a cough medicine that used a monkey in a much larger role for a TV ad afterwards. It seemed pretty hypocritical too, since if it’s monkey slavery, it’s monkey slavery, right? And I didn’t hear a peep about the other ad. PeTA did complain, though, so the ad agency changed their Robitussin ad to feature a computer-generated ape that’s so realistic, you’d never know that it wasn’t real. On top of the fact that they had actually already used a real orangutan, what’s the difference? But faking it is fine with PeTA, even if it seems hypocritical.
So now there seems to be some kind of open feud between Dodge and PeTA. In the new ad for the Dodge Ram Outdoorsman, there is a guy camping who can’t sleep because of some animal noise, so he takes out a bow and arrow and kills it so he can get some peace and quiet. Sure, they show the guy just shooting the arrow into the darkness so they have plausible deniability, but since the noise ceases instantly, it is suggested that he has senselessly murdered an animal. (Okay, maybe he’s going to eat it later. I don’t want to start casting aspersions.) But that’s not nearly enough for this bloodthirsty beast! A few seconds later, a frog or something starts croaking, and he gets that look of bloodlust on his face again (murderer!). (Oh, sorry, I wasn’t supposed to be throwing accusations around, was I?) So anyway, the suggestion is that he’s going to kill another animal, and every other animal after that, to shut it up so he can sleep peacefully. First of all, I just want to ask where this place is that doesn’t have any crickets. But obviously, I’d have to say that this ad is aimed at saying: “Nyah Nyah Ny’Nyah Nyah!” to PeTA for complaining about the monkey last time. And after being much less vocal about it when Robitussin does a worse example of the same thing, can you really blame them?
So what’s next for the Dodge Ram ads? Well, if they get complaints about this one, perhaps they should make a hunting-themed ad for one of the Ram pickup trucks. They could brag about the cargo capacity while showing it filled up with the piled carcasses of dozens of dead, mutilated animals, while blood flows out of the tailgate in a virtual waterfall of gore. And if they get flack for that, perhaps they could sell a new model of Ram pickup with an actual decapitated Ram’s head nailed onto the front of the truck as a hood ornament. If they continue to escalate the violence against animals, perhaps they could win some sort of “shock and awe” campaign, forcing PeTA to back down lest more animals are harmed. But the joke would be on them! For all of these ads would be made with stuffed animals and that Halloween “vampire blood”, just as a joke! (That’s no different than a digital monkey, right? They’re both fake.) Then they could run a tag that said: “No animal was harmed in the making of this ad.” And the only casualty would be PeTA’s credibility (like when they said that wearing fake fur is just as bad as wearing real fur {Why? Because it’s too hard to figure out who to throw red paint on?}).
Here is the Dodge Ram Outdoorsman ad I’m talking about:
Here is a link to the “invisible monkey” ad:
Here’s a link to the Robitussin monkey (actually orangutan) ads:
Want to see another monkey ad? Here’s the PCS “Monkey with a cold” ad:
