Monday, February 18, 2008

It's just WRONG! Hrumpf!

As I've been home from work (sick - blech), I've watched one commercial a number of times... that I do NOT approve of. It's an AFLAC commercial, where a factory worker is asking her boss if they have AFLAC insurance, but he just says they have "uhh" and points to an orangutan wreaking havoc on their workplace.

Here are the problems I have with the commercial:

1) It uses an ape in a commercial. What most viewers don't think about (or realize) is that apes used in the entertainment industry aren't full grown adults. They're young, which means they've been pulled from their moms at young ages. (Hence why when I worked at the zoo, many people thought the chimps were gorillas because they'd only seen entertainment chimps with pale faces - chimps have pale faces when they're juveniles. When they get older, they're too strong and often aggressive, so they're discarded to sanctuaries or labs.)

2) The orangutan is shown acting in an anthropomorphic manner, which encourages people to believe they would make great pets and not realize that (a) that's illegal or (b) they grow up to be six times stronger than adult humans and are unmanageable to treat as "little humans".

3) This is the most annoying of all... they over-dubbed the orang using CHIMP noises! Orangutans don't make all those vocalizations - they use long calls and grunts because in the wild they live great distances apart in trees. Chimps are the louder bunch with all the screams and "ooh ooh aah aah" noises.

Anyway, I just had to get that out there. Sorry for my rant!

4 comments:

Kristen Kludt said...

I liked your rant! It was very informative. I'm sorry you were sick today - I hope you feel better!!

AK said...

Oh my dear Grete. I'm so glad you know these things. Now I will also be annoyed when I see that commercial (not that I wasn't already, a little, just because it was annoying). I hope you feel better!

Anonymous said...

Everything I need to know about primates I learned from Grete.

Erin Marie said...

i saw that ad a few days ago and said (outloud) Grete would hate this. that meant nothing to the people around me, but i wanted you to know that you trained me well...i knew almost all the reasons you would hate it and i hated it too (didn't know about the chimp noises though) hope you feel better soon...especially by next week!!!