A gorilla in a purple silk shirt sits behind a drum kit, stares into the middle distance for eleven long seconds, then launches into Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” — one of the most-quoted drum fills in music history. Ninety seconds later, the ad ends. Nobody has said a single word about chocolate.
Cadbury and agency Fallon London released “Gorilla” in August 2007, less than a year after a salmonella contamination scare had forced a nationwide product recall and put the company’s reputation on the line. Director Juan Cabral built the ad around a single line in Cadbury’s brief: a joyful expression of the brand. There’s no dialogue, no tagline until the final frame, and no attempt to explain what a drumming gorilla has to do with a chocolate bar.
Audiences didn’t need it explained. The ad became one of the most talked-about commercials in British advertising history, racking up views and press coverage for weeks and spawning a wave of parodies and tribute performances. At the 2008 Cannes Lions festival it won the Film Grand Prix, the industry’s top prize, and it’s still regularly ranked among the best commercials ever made.
Dairy Milk sales rose roughly 9% in the months after the campaign launched, and Cadbury credited “Gorilla” with restoring the affection the salmonella scandal had cost it. Two decades later, marketers still cite it as the textbook example of an ad that sells a feeling instead of a feature — and gets remembered for it.
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