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These days it may be frowned upon, but as I was growing up I used to really enjoy the TV adverts for PG Tips tea featuring all those chimpanzees dressed as humans, and it seems I’m not alone as the advertising campaign can claim two records. First, it is the longest running ad campaign for any brand, with the first advertisement shown in 1956, and the last in 2002! That’s almost fifty years of monkey mayhem! Secondly, one of the ads (Mr. Shifter, the piano mover) is the most shown advert on UK TV, having been aired more than 1000 times!
Over the years the chimps have got up to all sorts of things including the Tour de France (avez vous cuppa?), microwave repair, digging holes in the road, and of course dropping pianos down the stairs. There was also a series of ads where one of the chimps was a secret agent named Brooke Bond, taking his name from the manufacturer of PG Tips at the time. The final set of adverts featured various chimps playing the members of a typical family – Mum, Dad, teenage daughter and young son.
The chimpanzees would also be made to look as if they were talking, which was usually just them flapping their mouths open and shut randomly, although sometimes they would play film backwards and forwards to make the speech fit better. This trick was also used to make the chimps motions fit what the advert required.
The ads came in for a bit of a knocking from animal rights protesters, but this is what officially brought the campaign to an end. Instead it was deemed the ads were associated with the older generation, and PG Tips wanted to appeal to a younger demographic. The chimps were initially replaced by a set of clay animation cartoons made by Aardman Animation, but more recently they’ve gone back to their monkey roots (sort of) with the current ads featured Johnny Vegas and the knitted monkey which Vegas originally featured alongside when advertising terrestrial digital TV.
To finish then, here’s that record breaking advert featuring the chimps moving a piano. It may be dated 1971 but I’m sure it was still being shown in the 1980’s.
April 17th, 2009 at 10:01 am
[...] was a teapot that was big and coloured yellow, but this wasn’t for sticking your Tetley or PG Tips in for a bit of a brew. Nope, the Big Yellow Teapot can only be described as a teapot shaped [...]
April 18th, 2009 at 9:01 am
[...] am of course referring to the PG Tips adverts featuring chimpanzee actors, and the Tetley adverts featuring the animated Tea Folk, but the [...]
June 15th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Is there a DVD of PG Tips Chimp adverts?
June 15th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Not that I know of Denise. That’s a great idea though.
May I recommend the cool Retro TV Ads site for some great old UK TV commercials, or failing that good old YouTube.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
i have a monkey she`s called dolly from the 80`s she`s got red dress on blonde hair and would like to no more about her if i can
June 16th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Doesn’t ring a bell. Anybody got any ideas?
The only thing I can think of is Chic-a-boo, but I don’t remember there being a blonde one of those, they were brown. They had holes in the mouth, ears and (disgustingly enough) nostrils in which their thumb could be inserted.
June 18th, 2009 at 11:19 am
I’ve done a bit of digging for Alana and I think the toy monkey she has must have been made as a promotional item for PG Tips sometime in either the 1970’s or 1980’s.
The chimp in question is called Dolly, and there were a series of ads featuring two chimps named Dolly and Aida. They were portrayed as friends (possibly neighbours) who get together for a natter over a cup of tea.
Dolly wore a curly blonde wig, so that would seem to match up. Here’s a link to the tellyAds site showing one of the Dolly and Aida adverts.
Anyone know any better?
July 31st, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I have an original PG tips monkey in tour de france(avez vouz un cuppa) outfit, shoes and cap in very good condition any idea, from anyone as to how to sell it? it has been in my family since the campaign as a member of the family worked at Thames TV and it came from the office there.
October 9th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
i used to have a pg tips video with all the chimp adverts on it when i was little but i believe it got thrown away eventually. it was good though and had the dolly and aida characters on it too. go to http://www.youtube.com and type in pg tips advert dolly.