The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <cm AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

ADVERTISING CHIMPS GET FAT RAISES
Primate Actor Retirements Plus High Demand Push Costs Skyward
April 03, 2006

Advertising Age
By Jeremy Mullman

 CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Screen Actors Guild members take note: A 
group of commercial actors secured an across-the-board, 25% to 30% 
pay increase last year without so much as a union meeting or strike 
threat.


The cost for using chimps in CareerBuilder's ads has increased as 
much as 30% since the campaign first began in 2004.


Primate shortage
 Chimp compensation is on the rise, animal trainers and ad agency 
creatives said, because a recent surge of retirements has created a 
primate shortage. And that-paired with marketers' still potent urge 
to tap chimps and orangutans to hawk job listings, light beer and 
stock brokerages-is driving prices up.

 The highest-profile campaign of that ilk -- CareerBuilder's office 
chimp spots that broke on the Super Bowl -- had a shoot delayed a 
month last year due to talent availability. And Marshall Ross, 
executive creative director at CareerBuilder's agency, 
Cramer-Krasselt, Chicago, said the cost of using chimps has risen as 
much as 30% since the popular ads started running in 2004.

 "It's a great time to be a working chimp," he noted.

 Animal rights protests
 Animal-rights activists disagree. And there's some evidence that 
years of protests against their use contributed to the current 
shortage, both by dissuading some marketers from using chimps and 
encouraging trainers to retire them.

 "People are beginning to realize that they use fear and beatings to 
keep [the animals] on cue," said a spokeswoman for People for the 
Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has conducted an online campaign 
at nomoremonkeybusiness.com and persuaded marketers such as Honda and 
Puma to pledge not to use chimps in commercials. "It's become passe 
to use them."

 But the biggest blow to the acting-ape supply came last year, when 
Hollywood's largest trainer, Bob Dunn, retired his 11 chimps and six 
orangutans to a Florida animal sanctuary. A spokesman for Bob Dunn's 
Animal Services said they were retired because "there was an 
opportunity to keep them together as a family." Patti Ragan-who runs 
the sanctuary housing Mr. Dunn's retired chimps-said he told her he'd 
grown wary of being targeted by protestors.

 Cost of working chimps
 And then there's the cost. Chimps, for instance, can only act until 
about age eight, at which point they become too large and erratic to 
be controlled on film sets. But they can live to age 60, at a cost of 
more than $10,000 a year at an animal sanctuary such as Ms. Ragan's. 
"We're seeing fewer and fewer people willing to take on that 
commitment as the working chimps retire," said Cramer-Krasselt's Mr. 
Ross. "They're not being replaced at the same rate they're leaving."

 Whatever the reason, the retirements created a minor windfall for 
those still working, at least in the short-term. A spokeswoman for 
Steve Martin's Working Wildlife, now Hollywood's largest ape handler, 
said the cost of using its chimps rose 25% last year, to $1,000 per 
day from $800. "They're working more, too," she said.

 But she doesn't expect the price increases to continue, considering 
advances in computer animation that make it possible to create 
realistic animal effects on screen. "That's disappointing," said Ms. 
Ragan, an opponent of chimp ads. "I'm hoping they become so expensive 
nobody wants to use them anymore