Cadbury Gorilla Drummer Drums To Phil Collins from Adpressive on Vimeo.

 

In 2007, ad agency Fallon London on behalf of Cadbury Schweppes, put out the greatest commercial of all time. The 90-second masterpiece was produced to promote Cadbury Dairy Milk brand chocolate.

The premise is simple, the concept—strange. But you can’t tell me it doesn’t hold your attention for the entire duration!

The spot took 3 months to produce and the gorilla suit itself was woven from a “fur” of knotted yak hairs, with an animatronic silicone face. The face itself included 27 remote-controlled motors operated by a pair of technicians, with gross movements handled by Garon Michaels (i.e., he was the actor inside). [source]

The television premiere of the ad was on August 31st, 2007, during the season 8 finale of the UK version of Big Brother.

Cadbury reported that sales of Dairy Milk had increased by 9% from the same period the previous year and the ad won countless awards including:

The Epica d’Or for Film 2007, the Grand Cristal at Festival de la Publicité de Méribel, Gold at the British Television Advertising Awards 2008, Gold at the Advertising Creative Circle Awards 2008, Gold at the International ANDY Awards, Black and Yellow Pencils at the D&AD Awards 2008, Gold at the Clio Awards 2008, Bronze at the One Show 2008, the FAB Award 2008, Gold at the Fair Go Ad Awards 2008, and the Film Grand Prix Lion at Cannes Lions 2008, widely considered the most prestigious prize within the advertising community. [source]