For Immediate Release: August 18, 2005
Contact: Amy Rhodes 757-622-7382

Brooklyn, N.Y. — After Plaza Auto Mall’s controversial “Trunk Monkey” commercial featuring a chimpanzee who is portrayed as rescuing a beleaguered driver caused public outcry and a response from PETA, the car dealership pulled the ad off the air. PETA will be awarding the dealership its “Compassionate Advertiser Award.”

PETA contacted auto dealer John Rossati after receiving complaints about his commercial from local viewers. Informing him about the cruel methods used in training great apes, PETA also reported that Honda, PUMA, and Keds recently pulled their commercials featuring great apes and that Men’s Wearhouse had pledged to never use great apes in ads. Furniture chain HomeUSA Warehouse and New Jersey auto dealership Malouf Ford pulled their entire ad campaigns featuring a chimpanzee and an orangutan, respectively, after corresponding with PETA.

A primatologist working undercover for a California facility that trains great apes for the TV and film industries witnessed trainers kicking, punching, and beating chimpanzees into submission. The orangutans and chimpanzees seen on TV are traumatically taken from their mothers. By the time they reach young adulthood, they are too powerful to be used and are often discarded at substandard roadside zoos or warehoused. The Jane Goodall Institute and the American Zoo & Aquarium Association recognize the unavoidable problems of using great apes for entertainment.

Plaza Auto Mall thanked PETA, saying, “Once we first heard of the possibility of the cruelty happening, we immediately discontinued all advertising.” Says PETA Director Debbie Leahy, “Plaza Auto Mall is sending a positive message that will resonate well beyond the Brooklyn community. These intelligent, social, and sensitive animals don’t deserve to be treated like punching bags by trainers.”

For more information, visit NoMoreMonkeyBusiness.com. A copy of PETA’s letter to John Rossati is available upon request.

LIVERPOOL – What can get you out of a speeding ticket, unlock your car from the inside, and deter potential car thieves? A Trunk Monkey, of course.

Bresee Chevrolet is building brand identity thanks to a new television advertising campaign that highlights a monkey popping out of a car’s trunk, inevitably helping out the car’s owner in some way.

It’s an ad campaign specifically designed to offer an antidote to Billy Fuccillo’s “Huge” ad campaign.

“It’s totally the opposite,” explains Scott Portuondo, Bresee’s general manager. “Ours [is] fresh, It’s not as in-your-face, it’s more entertaining.” Equally entertaining has been the response by customers and prospects that have seen the TV spots, he adds.

The Liverpool car dealership has had to create an e-mail list for customers eagerly awaiting the fourth trunk-monkey commercial. Portuondo, who won’t reveal what the trunk monkey’s next stunt will be, says that ad will launch at the end of this month. Other customers have e-mailed Portuondo explaining that they bought a new car, but now they want their Trunk Monkey.

Portuondo, a Bresee Chevrolet veteran of 10 years, says he “cannot remember any ad campaign having nearly as much of an impact. It’s mostly kind of a goofy ad that cuts through the clutter. Every ad you see on TV for car dealers has been tried anywhere you go in the country, and this has a fun twist to it.”

There are no sales goals attached to the campaign, which Portuondo says was designed specifically to build up the Bresee brand. The dealership has a Trunk Monkey-decorated Christmas tree, and plans to come out with a line of Trunk Monkey-themed apparel after January 1.

The commercials, which have been airing since late May, have cost Bresee between $15,000 and $20,000 per month. “On average, we’re spending a lot less than ‘Huge’,” Portuondo says.

And while Portuondo says he’d love to take the credit for the Trunk Monkey’s appearance in Central New York, the idea originated with a dealership in Portland, Oregon. A clip was e-mailed to Portuondo in April “and I just thought it was hilarious,” he recalls. “I said, ‘Gee, we have to get that.'”

He called up R-West, a Portland-based advertising agency, to secure the rights to the campaign, and then coordinated local branding of the Trunk Monkey series with Bresee’s own ad agency, Designworks. Additional commercials featuring the Trunk Monkey depend on how long R-West can keep the campaign fresh.

“It depends on how many sequels they’ll produce,” Portuondo says. “We just bought another commercial last week. We’ve got the rights to that for another year. They keep making commercials, we keep buying them.”

Copyright Central New York Business Journal December 10, 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

Source: CNY Business Journal

PETA issued the following alert regarding their protest against the Trunk Monkey ad campaign:

This advertising agency in Portland, Oregon, created a commercial called “Trunk Monkey” that portrays a tire iron wielding chimpanzee, stored in a car’s trunk, who can be summoned whenever the operator of the vehicle is harassed by another driver. The commercial is sold to car dealerships all over the country. Please write to R/West officials to ask that they retire the commercial and establish a policy against using live primates in their ads:

Sean Blixseth, President
R/West
1430 S.E. Third Ave., 3rd Fl.
Portland, OR 97214
503-223-5443
503-223-5805 (fax)