What if someone were to tell you that captive monkeys can understand money, and even behave like humans in economic conditions?
After hearing Laurie Santos, a Yale University primatologist, give a TED talk saying just this, New York ad executives Keith Olwell and Elizabeth Kiehner’s next question was obvious. Can monkeys be advertised to?
No, the harsh economic climate has not forced them to search so desperately for a new target market.
Monkeys are often used by scientist such as Santos to study the human mind. Teaming up with Santos, the New York ad executives will study their advertising’s appeal to the monkeys’ most primitive desires (which are eerily similar to our own). This includes putting one of marketing’s oldest maxims to the test – sex sells.
Billboards that include photographs of alpha males and a “graphic shot of a female monkey” will be placed outside of the monkeys’ enclosures to advertise two novel and equally tasty foods. Then, after a designated period of time, the monkeys will be offered a choice between the foods and the results tallied.
According to Fox News, Olwell already believes the advertising will work, stating that, “Monkeys have shown in previous studies to really love photographs of alpha males and shots of genitals, and we think this will drive their purchasing habits.”
Now I’ve seen it all, I would love to sit in on a monkey focus group for on of our television commercials