When the insurance price comparison site comparethemarket.com started advertising using fake meerkats bemoaning that people were confusing it with their comparethemeerkat.com site, little did they know how well it would catch on. Especially the creature popping up at the end and saying "Simples". It has bugged me on zoo visits, where kids always pop up and utter the line.
I don't know if it has helped the actual company, but apparently there has been a big increase in the number of people adopting meerkats in zoos and animal parks.
And, of course, the company just had to set up an actual comparethemeerkat.com website.
They try to deflect you back to the insurance site, but you can still compare meerkats if you persist! Try it here:
http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/compare
That stuff happens a lot over here w/ our commercials as well. People are still uttering "Where's the Beef?" over 20 years since the catch phrase was coined.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of the Geico caveman commercials, where Geico's (fake) line was "So easy a caveman can do it." All the cavemen would get pissed off about it. The commercials got so popular that they tried to make a TV show out of it. That didn't catch on at all.
ReplyDeleteAnything goes as long as it makes people adopt animals in zoos.
ReplyDeleteThere was a bit about this in the our local paper today, because he's made the meerkats at our local wildlife park a lot more popular..which has to be a good thing, although I agree with you about that catchphrase..everyone seems to be saying it and I want to smack them LOL
ReplyDeleteBeatlelady, I was gonna mention the unbelievably ANNOYING Geico commercials, but figured no one outside the US would know what I was talking about. I would like to run that stupid gecko over with my car and turn him into roadkill. The cavemen commercials are stupid now and if I hear "somebody's watching me" one more time with the big eyed stack of money, I'm taking hostages. lol
ReplyDelete