Cadbury’s Drumming Gorilla - Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart

11 November 2008 by Silky

The original version of the Cadbury’s Drumming Gorilla went down as many people’s favourite advert of 2007.

It was quirky and funny, completely different to every other advert, and seemed to do the trick for Dairy Milk sales.

But even so, sales still aren’t good enough, and now Cadbury need a cost-efficient way to tap back into some of the public’s gorilla-shaped goodwill.

Why not relaunch the drumming gorilla advert with a different song?

Because it’s everything the first one wasn’t.

It’s tired and predictable (”Oh, I see. It’s a Gorilla playing the drums to a ironically-shit-but-not-that-shit 80’s classic. Brilliant!”) and the way the film changes speed to make the Gorilla drum in time with music is toe curling bad.

But for me, this new version fails because - much like the Cadbury’s Trucks follow-up - it creates nowhere near as much joy as the Phil Collins version. Which, after all, is the whole point of the advert.

And if I had to quantify just how much joy the Bonnie Tyler version creates, I’d have to say, ooh, about a quarter of a cup - not a drop more.

Missing it’s mark but a good 1 and a quarter cupfuls.

What do you all think? Does this new version work for you?

Just How Bad is this Ad?

32 Votes

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13Responses:

Ian

Said on the 11 November 2008

They’ve doen the same thing with the trucks advert, put to some new music. New music doesn’t make a crap advert any better.

It’s advertising chocolate, let’s get some chocolate into the advert and make me want that. This advert in no way makes me want chocolate.
Pete

Said on the 11 November 2008

Another lazy You-tube ripoff
Mike Empuria

Said on the 12 November 2008

The original version was aimed at me; my age group and a chocolate lover, but what worked in the Phil version is that everyone, EVERYONE, that knows the song knows that the best bit is the drum rift. That’s why the ad worked so well. Bonny Tyler is still aimed at the same age group but where was the drum rift? Where was the expectation of musical brilliance? Where was the surprise? There wasn’t one and so it doesn’t work.

Now if they can get the monkey to do Dance with the Devil…

Edit:You can do edits now? Wow, must come here more often!
Frankly

Said on the 14 November 2008

With a basic bit of video editing software you can cut up any music video and try to stitch it to a different bit of music but it isn’t always going to work.
But even with that they did a piss poor job. The action doesn’t sync with the music anymore.
Its a load of Rubbish and its been playing longer than the original Phil Collins version. They really should pull it,
misterfricative

Said on the 15 November 2008

Is this for real? It plays like a low-rent Youtube piss-take, and even by those low standards it fails. Apart from anything else, who the fuck wants to hear Bonnie Tyler sing Bright Eyes (or whatever it’s called). No one, that’s who.
misterfricative

Said on the 15 November 2008

You know what would have been funnier? They should have set it up to use some manic thrash number, and when the music finally kicks in, the gorilla should have been all WTF?! I can’t play that. And then he gets all pissed and frustrated and throws down the sticks, kicks over a couple of drums and stomps off.

(BTW site admin dudes: I see the ‘click to edit’ button on my previous post, but when I click it, it says I don’t have permission to edit. You might want to look into that. UPDATE — Oh hey, the edit works on this one! I guess the edit option must be subject to some kind of 1 minute time-lock feature or something?)
Joanna Butler

Said on the 15 November 2008

wow..i’ve just seen this for the first time, unbelievably shite
saltydog

Said on the 16 November 2008

It looks like they used the same footage, b/c the gorilla singularly fails to play any cymblas when they are clearly heard on the song.
Pete

Said on the 16 November 2008

I would say your criticisms are indeed valid, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that the Bonnie Tyler overlay was on You-Tube about 5 days after the original Phil Collins version aired.

so this makes it another lazy you-tube rip off
pete

Said on the 23 November 2008

A lot of responses remind me of judges in Strictly Come Dancing.
My wife and I saw this ad.for the first time recently and we creased up. You don’t have to see any chocolate during the song but the fun comes back to you when you see the Cadbury name or think of chocolate.
Kez

Said on the 23 November 2008

I think the main reason this sequel fails is exactly that; it’s a sequel. It’s doing nothing different, it’s trying to milk this quirky idea that everyone loved..BECAUSE it was like nothing else. Now it’s just trying to re-capture the ingenuity of the original, but it doesn’t work because it’s just a clone of the original.

Also, i never knew this was on YouTube first…
roy

Said on the 24 November 2008

Being a designer I really think this is the marketing and management saying “just do another song” not really realising the original was just that original, a total rehash and typical money saving and lack of respect/trust from management to designers!
Darren

Said on the 24 November 2008

Hmm as I was the one who brought the original ad to Silky’s attention, suppose I better comment…

You can’t polish a turd.

Just about sums it up…