Don't laugh at the chimp in the commercial

Chimpanzees are not exactly the unsung heroes of advertising; in fact, they’re quite sung, having starred in splashy, successful Super Bowl campaigns from E*Trade to CareerBuilder. (Pictured is Jonah the E*Trade chimp, photographed during a long-ago visit to Adweek.) But now one zoologist is calling for a chimp-ad moratorium, arguing that making chimps wear funny hats and dance around for the camera isn’t good for their image. “When chimpanzees are portrayed as caricatures of humans, dressed up in silly outfits and so on, people think that chimps aren’t endangered, aren’t worthy of our conservation efforts,” says Steve Ross of Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo.