Autocorrect

Background

PETA wanted to educate advertisers about the shocking mistreatment of apes in commercials. The fact that baby apes are taken away from their mothers and brutally trained for years to perform in front of the camera, is completely unknown to creatives who write ape characters into their scripts.

The goal was to advertise to advertisers, which in itself is a huge challenge. PETA needed to reach them at exactly the moment where the message is most relevant: the creation of the commercial.

Idea

The script is where it all begins.  So that’s where the message was sent. The WORD AutoCorrect function was altered, so when a creative types “ape,” “monkey,” “chimp,” or “gorilla,” it completes the sentence with the PETA message. A link was provided to lead the target from their script to a website where they could find out more about the subject, pledge not to use apes in advertising and spread the message through social and professional networks.

Results

So far, the message has been placed in over 270 agencies and on thousands of computers worldwide, creating a 100%-effective prevention tool that solved the problem at the root, as well as creating industry-wide awareness. So far, 4,327 advertisers have pledged not to use real apes. The cost of the campaign was a mere $250 and has reached thousands of industry creatives.

Our Thoughts

Even though I can’t help thinking the 270 agencies claimed in the results are all BBDO agencies (et al), this is still a very noble effort and some very clever thinking using the IT department as the channel to market.

I’ve always said “everyone loves a monkey” and that’s why they’re used in ads. But now the ad-writers can actually show the monkeys some love. And not in an inappropriate way either.