When life gives you lemons, make lemonade; When PETA complains about the chimp used in your commercial, digitally erase it — kind of. This might be the best Dodge commercial yet. Before and after commercials below.

Commercial before PETA's bellyaching

The above commercial was created to build buzz for Chrysler's big tent event and features a monkey dressed like a stuntman setting off some lame fireworks. It was a marginally cute advertisement, but someone at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals saw it and complained. We'll let their spokesperson/primatologist explain:

Most top ad agencies in the country won't even consider producing an ad featuring a great ape these days given the well-documented abuse that young chimpanzees and orangutans suffer in the entertainment industry. This abuse starts when they are prematurely removed from their mothers and continues when they are trained to perform through savage beatings, denied even the most basic necessities, transported and housed in barren steel cages, and then discarded at seedy roadside zoos around the age of 8, even though they can live into their 60s. You won't find a great-ape trainer without a history of Animal Welfare Act violations and a reputation for dumping animals when they're no longer profitable. After watching a video narrated by Anjelica Huston about the use of great apes in entertainment, savvy ad agencies such as BBDO, Young & Rubicam, Grey Group, Draftfcb, and Saatchi & Saatchi made the compassionate decision not to exploit great apes in future ads. Dodge isn't going to dodge a bullet on this one. It needs to pull the ad - and we've contacted the company asking it to do just that.


Dodge, displaying a rare sense of humor and cleverness, created the new advertisement below with what looks like a digitally-erased monkey. It's even more humorous than the original.

Commercial after PETA's bellyaching

[LA Times]