The Gorilla That Saved Cadbury

Do you remember the Cadbury gorilla ad from 2007?

A gorilla. Sitting behind a drum kit. Playing Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" with the kind of intensity usually reserved for actual rock stars. For 90 seconds this purple-faced primate absolutely demolished those drums while the camera slowly zoomed in on his increasingly passionate performance.

Then, right at the end: "A glass and a half full of joy. Cadbury Dairy Milk."

That was it. No product shots. No explanation of cocoa percentages. No testimonials from chocolate experts. Just a gorilla having the time of his life. The ad was absolutely bonkers. And it worked.

One ridiculous moment, not a rebrand

It became one of the most talked-about ads of the decade. Won awards. Got parodied endlessly. Single-handedly revived Phil Collins' career. (Okay, maybe not that last part, but it did not hurt.)

Here is what is interesting though. That one ridiculous ad did not turn Cadbury into "the gorilla chocolate company." They did not rebrand the packaging with drumming animals. They did not hire Phil Collins as their spokesperson. Most of their other marketing stayed perfectly normal. Product shots. Happy families sharing moments. The usual chocolate stuff.

The gorilla was just one brilliant moment of "what if we did something completely different?" in an otherwise conventional strategy. And that one moment carried them for years.

You already do this in real life

I think about this whenever business owners tell me they are worried that using humour means "changing their whole brand." They think one funny social post means rewriting the website, redesigning the packaging, and training customer service to answer the phone with jokes.

But that is not how it works. You already switch registers without thinking about it.

You crack jokes with friends at the pub, then have serious conversations with your accountant. You are entertaining at dinner parties, then professional in client meetings. You make your kids laugh at breakfast, then handle important calls with appropriate gravity. Nobody expects you to be consistently funny in every context. That would be exhausting. (And a bit weird.)

The same applies to your marketing. You can post something genuinely entertaining to capture attention, then follow up with straightforward information when people want to learn more. You can run a memorable ad campaign that gets people talking, while keeping your website copy professional.

Social media is the perfect place for this, because people are there to be entertained. That is when you want to be the gorilla behind the drum kit: memorable, engaging, impossible to ignore. When someone visits your website afterwards, that is when you can be as professional as you need to be. The gorilla gets their attention. The chocolate keeps them coming back.

Meet Brian

That is exactly what Brian, our AI Comedy Marketing Assistant, helps you do. He does not try to turn your entire business into a comedy show. He helps you create those strategic moments of entertainment that capture attention and make people remember you.

The rest of your marketing can stay exactly as professional as it needs to be. Try Brian and find your gorilla moment.

P.S. Unlike actual gorillas, Brian does not require drum lessons, will not eat all your bananas, and has never once demanded royalties from Phil Collins.