ING Direct dumps Billy Connolly for Charles the Orangutan in new campaign via JackWattsCurrie
September 27 2010, 4:09 pm | | 75 Comments
Billy Connolly has been replaced by Charles the Orangutan in a new campaign for ING via JackWattsCurrie, Sydney.
75 Comments
When you can’t get an idea in there, get a (bad CGI) monkey in there.
(And the copy on the YouTube page is obnoxious.)
If 4:28pm thinks that is a bad cgi monkey then he or she must have a very high standard of cgi since it is clearly a man in a suit, what a stupid thing to say urghhh sums up this blog entirely!
Ginger.
At least Sam the Legal Eagle didn’t look creepy when he did that exact same joke on the Muppet Show 35 years ago.
Rip off – or ‘inspired’?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beCYGm1vMJ0
I think 4.28 thinks the bad CG is on the mouth 4:46.
Calm down.
5:17, that’s an ironic link. The interviewer is Billy Connolly’s wife, Pamela Whatshername.
5:30PM. Pamela Whn is Connolly’s ex-wife. The orangutan is his current domestic partner.
Bank West also uses orange. And animals.
Time for Animal Logic to change it’s name…? Bundy Bear; Charles the Orangutan…
I always suspected that my bank was run by monkeys, now here’s a bank that confirms that they are.
The Naked truth may end up being a risky marketing move, but you have to admire the bravery of swapping one hairy beast for another as your pitchman.
Who knows, maybe they haven’t made a swap after all, and it’s Connolly in the suit?
Sorry to buck the status-quo but I find these piss funny. And memorable.
Unlike that other bank ad I can’t quite think of right now…
Annonymys 7:31 Bankwest stole everything about who they are and what they do from ING DIRECT.
I think what ING DIRECT is doing and has done in Australia for the last 10 years is amazing, they are the only bank out there that actually want to give you what you want, without a hidden agenda and your all arguing about CGI, monkeys and where the idea of an Orangatan came from??
easy 10:31PM thanks for the heads up – us advert professionals must of been crazy to dis this gift to society…. that’s right you cynics, ING Direct really do CARE FOR OUR MONEY – some orange juice swillin’, tree hoppin’ ,palm oil hatin’ raga will stroke it like a new born until we want it back…. who would of thunk it…..
10:31
Wow. Clients check this blog now?
They drop Billy for this, oh dear.
I would have changed the laptop logo for a banana ..because im creative
Rangas are so hot right now.
i reckon all this anonymous stuff is quite inspiring, there is enough passion in here to start a kick ass agency – so how about the anonymous get together and give it a go
I wonder – when a new ad gets posted, is it the same people that respond?
Because the sad, negative, boring and depressing comments all sound so similar.
This game can still be fun, but clearly not for some.
Isn’t ING and ING Direct tow different companies? Billy fronts ING, not ING Direct, unless things have changed.
and for those who are serious about giving it a go here are three pointers
1 do it with your own money
2 dont spend any more than you make
3 avoid pessimists like the plague
who knows you may truly enjoy selling again
9.53 are you trying to say you couldn’t remember Billy and ING?
It’s an incredibly powerful and long running presenter campaign. IMHO it takes balls (not necessarily brains) to dump it for a bloke in a chimp suit.
Sounds like somebody’s getting a little defensive. Just a note to Colin and the JWC and ING mob getting so upset by the anonymous comments, when you put your work out there, and you pitch it on the blog, you have to expect that not everyone’s going to love it, or think it’s funny, or creative, or even competent. Considering the time it has probably taken you to get an idea like your monkey sold and made, the anonymous comments may be the only honest ones you’ve heard in months. At least Anonymous isn’t getting paid to tell you what you want to hear. That’s how the blog works, and if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the jungle.
I think this spot is hilarious, watched it a few times on air now and it is funny everytime I watch it.
Its about time the unfunny scot with the purple beard was replaced. He’s not exactly current. He’s a bit like Ben Elton in that he has a slight connection to Australia but no one can remember why, and he hasn’t been funny since 1987.
Not that the Ranga is more relevant but he is much fucking funnier than Connoly!
Terrible terrible ad. Not one bit entertaining. Col, stick to story boarding.
9.56
Bollocks.
Honest comments?
How would you know if honest comments were or were not on the table during the making of this campaign?
You wouldn’t so stop trying to justify the negative crap that gets posted here as constructive.
And spare us all the clever end line about the jungle.
Nice try Danny. The Connoly campaign worked wonders for ING (you should know, sounds like you work there) and a monkey with animated eyebrows is never going to have the same impact as a celebrity people already like. ING might want everyone to fall in love with their new wise-ass urangutan but he’s going to have to actually do something other than grin and make weak jokes first.
10:13
Oh, you mean like the clever end line about being naked?
Wake up and smell the jungle.
10:04. The big difference is that the ape let’s the client, I mean agency, write his copy for him. No manager, no agent, no minor celebrity ego.
Pay peanuts, get monkeys.
10:26, no I don’t work there nor did I have anything to do with the spot I just think its a fresh change and an important rebrand.
Connoly was a good campaign there’s no denying that. However its pretty stale these days and if I was ING trying to attract customers that weren’t 50 yr old housewives or misogynist fat cats, I’d get rid of Billy too.
Ask anyone under the age of 40 if they find him funny and 90% of people will say no, but he used to be.
Its fine to have a celebrity on board for your campaign but if thats ALL they’ve done in the last few years it will probably make punters think that ING like its celebrity front man is a little bit past it.
Its nice to see an attempt to attract young money for a change, they certainly have more of a disposable income and thats who they should be marketing to. Not people that actually remember Billy Connoly.
Orangutan? I thought this was a young RIchard Branson doing an ad for Virgin Money?
I don’t know what all of the argument is about. This is a bad ad. Bad because its success hinges on being funny and it’s not. The good thing is that JWT and ING Direct tried to do something fresh and funny. The attempt is noble and great – the result is not.
Much better than the previous stuff.
Nobody gives a flying scotsman about a mad-cap shouting at you ‘WHY!?!?!? WHY!?!?!?’
In the words of Billy, the previous stuff was pish.
I suppose you guys really wanted to create another Cadbury gorilla or something, so you hearts are in the right place.
But as we all know, that’s been done already.
The ‘confidence’ message is pretty irrelevant (yes, I know someone somewhere in a research group said it was a ‘key motivator’ or something) but it’s stupid.
Having said that I’d rather see a talking ranga than an unfunny Scottsman.
Good on you for having a go, and the balls to put it up on this bog. I wouldn’t have.
10:28, thats a good thing though right??
OK, Danny fair enough.
However I wasn’t saying they should’ve stuck with Billy. My point is that Billy made the ING brand in Australia. The monkey is a clear reference to it (wise-cracking frontman/monkey) talking direct to you about how great it is to be with the nice people at ING. They’ve tried (as others have suggested) to find a cheaper way to get the same result by changing nothing but the spokesman. In this case they’ve replaced a well known comedian with comic timing with a guy in a monkey suit and a forgettable VO voice and script.
There’s no idea here, except that he’s orange.
11:12, and Naked.
Works for me but I see your point about cheaper ways to do things.
Dude in a suit costs less than a world famous comedian.
This is shitfuck.
Let’s face it, Billy was getting a bit tired and his opinion was irrelevant to the average australian. Good idea to replace him.
Unfortunately, replacing an old joke with an old joke isn’t the best solution. It’s like a puppet joking about how things would be fine if someone’s hand wasn’t up their ass all the time, or making talking movements with your hand and joking that it is Kermit the Frog naked.
In the end, all the banks seem to be making the same mistake, trying to make out that they are better than the other banks, but not giving you a good reason why they are. This is ANZ Barbara from the opposite angle (though both are Rangas). The core message is “We treat our customers so much better than the other banks” but there is no substantiation to this message so it will quickly be ignored.
ING Direct has some great product so why not focus on that, in a creative, non-infomercial style rather then having some ape (that no-one will relate to) trying to tell us that the ING experience is so much better? I guess this ad is trying to sell the brand but I am sure a cynical public will think “Sure, whatever, prove it!”
Now, I am going to watch some Planet of the Apes on You Tube… now there were some realistic Ape Suits!
Those who can, do. Those who can’t, comment.
Yes you have your own agency. Big slaps on the back. Is any of its rather meagre success due to you? Having freelanced there I would say the answer to that is a resounding fucking NO.
I like and bank with ING. I really struggle to see how people are finding this “piss-funny.”
The ad got my attention, and I visited the site and watched the other TVC, mission accomplished there. It is a new direction for the bank, but it feels half-done. Hope that the orangutan has a bit more character development in the next set of ads, as there’s an opportunity for this to actually be funny.
1:28
By your comment, Worldly, it would seem that you’ve fallen into your own later camp, and how much wisdom is there really in trying to stifle comment by anyone, including yours?
Just so we’re clear, however, there’s an awful lot of doing these days by those who can’t. Personally, I’d like to see allot more comment by those who can, just to try and put a stop to the amount of do that’s being spread around.
Those who can’t hack it, instead of defending the work, comment on those who comment.
Childish.
Saw this spot the other night and thought it was awful. The ad lacks any kind of concept and that talking orangutan actually really freaks me out.
Col, here are 3 more pointers.
1.Don’t post on the blog, they’re not your target
2.Don’t respond to anonymous posters, they haven’t achieved what you have & don’t deserve your attention
3.Be proud of your agency, not defensive.
You’ve got a great business there & it does well because of everyone there, unlike the sour freelancer who doesn’t have the guts to put his name to his flame.
Jeez.
Looks like there are a lot of bloggers who are putting the ‘U’ back into CNT.
Leave it alone fella’s, get cranky about something worth loosing sleep over.
Unlike you eh, Red Shookhead.
much ado about monkey
Love it! A great ad for Apple computers.
The spot is funny and getting talked about.
Yes it’s weird, it’s wrong and it’s unorthodox. Job done, beers all round boys.
LOUDDDDD NOISESSSSS!
Charles is completely unlikeable. He’s plain creepy, with mannerisms of a perverted old English man (what’s with the English V/O)? Perhaps only the storyboard got thru testing. This execution is wrong.
I find charles quite a likeable character, and think he has great potential to front ongoing campaigns. I think there’ll be a lot more to come comedy wise from this.
Its the weird mannerisms that make it good, otherwise it really is just an orange monkey, lets face it its one of the better banks ads. I’m pretty sick of Barbara she shits me to tears.
Although I am english, so nuff said I guess.
It’s a very cruel but accurate characterisation of the future King of England.
It’s shit
4:55, wouldn’t a Glaswegian like Billy say ‘shite’?
Ad Help
You should stop blogging and go and watch Jack from Jack Watts Currie play rugby on Friday.
Roberto
Funny script. No big idea, but a funny script all the same.
i don’t know why everyone thinks this ad is crap. makes perfect sense to me:
monkey talks about gaining confidence from the way his bank treats him so he has the confidence to appear on tv naked.
MAKES SENSE AND PRETTY FUNNY!!!!!!!
OMG. SO FUNNY!!!!!!!
ps
the british v/o does not work.
10:31, 10:18, and a few others –
They might have preferred using an Aussie VO, especially so the locals could relate, but they needed the ape to sound intelligent.
3:40 has a point.
It’s not JUST British, it’s blueblood British! Is everyone except ‘Queen Liz’ @ 2:08 missing the fact that he’s meant to sound like Prince Charles? This was obviously intended to heighten the cultural contradiction. If the ape sounded, say, like an Aussie sporting celebrity it wouldn’t work at all because it would be just… well, too close to the bone, shall we say; not to mention just plain weird seeing a loud, drunken primate swearing and farting in front of the footy on TV.
I would have thought using a chimp would have been a nod to old Charles Darwin.
Incredibly weird spot, but entertaining all the same.
It’s random and a little bit mad. Funny too. Well done Ben & Simone. Combined with the outdoor work, looks like you boys are finally getting to do the oddball stuff you’ve always wanted to. Look forward to the rest of the campaign.
Matt.
Hmm I sometimes wonder about the education level of some Australians – to those making the inevitable ‘monkey jokes, an orangutan is not a monkey – an orangutan is an ape. Apes and monkeys are very dfifferent. Also this one looks nothing like a male orangutan. One thinks the ad company could have done a little research on the appearance.
Leigh,
You’re dribbling. Wipe your chin?
It’s Prince Charles of course
Chill Gen Y’s. It’s simply the best ad on TV at the moment. Let it rest. Go invent something.
I like the Ad his voice got my attention and if you go to the Web Site it’s geared up to Attract the younger Generation who can follow Charles on Facebook & Twitter and it’s all very tongue in cheek all in all a bit fresher than Billy.
Love these ads.
How refreshing that they get your attention WITHOUT SHOUTING (let’s face it, that angle has worked already with these comments)
The whole orange orang branding thing is brilliant – instant recognition, apart from perhaps an association with Bankwest’s orange logo.
The subtlety of the script is clever. ING can be as boastful as they like and their client sickeningly smug without getting our backs up. He is a orang for chrissakes. Imagine the same script using a man in a business suit, as opposed to an ape suit. It would be incredibly alienating.
The best part for me is the always the throwaway quiet last verbal from him. A chuckle, or my favourite – attending his burnt dinner off screen – “It’s not too bad really”
I’m sorry but doesn’t anyone find Charles to be really creepy? Orangutans don’t have faces like that.
All ING is really trying to say, is that they view their customers as not a lot more than a bunch of Monkeys. It’s right in our face… and people think this is clever?
Word has it that BIlly was charging a fortune to appear in the ads, the producers proclaimed “bugger Connolly, a monkey can do that part better than him”. and the creatives caught wind of this idea ever since…