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Subaru Drives Away With PETA Award for Banning Ads Using Great Apes

Spot Featuring Young Chimpanzee Will Be Carmaker's Last

For Immediate Release:
March 31, 2008

Contact:
Kristie Phelps 757-622-7382

Cherry Hill, N.J. - For pledging that it will never again make ads that use great apes after learning from PETA about the suffering of young chimpanzees and orangutans used as "actors," Cherry Hill-based Subaru of America, Inc., will receive PETA's Compassionate Business Award.

PETA contacted Subaru after complaints about the automaker's "Small Tent, Big Event Sale" TV commercial--which featured a chimpanzee--poured in from around the country. After reading PETA's materials and watching a video narrated by actor Anjelica Huston, Subaru Director of Corporate Communications Michael McHale told PETA, "[D]ue to the issues surrounding their use in the entertainment industry, Subaru of America will not employ primates in its advertising in the future." McHale will receive flowers and a framed PETA Compassionate Business Award.

Some of the problems associated with the use of primates in TV, movies, and advertising include the following:

* Using infant and juvenile chimpanzees in commercials is inherently cruel. Early separation is traumatic for both mothers and infants, as great apes in the wild stay with their mothers for years.
* Many trainers repeatedly fail to comply with even the minimum standards for animal care that are required by federal law. Trainers sometimes use electric-shock prods and regular beatings to force intelligent and strong-willed youngsters to perform confusing acts and sit still under studio lights for hours.
* Chimpanzees used in ads are usually only a few years old. By the time that they reach young adulthood at about age 8, they are too powerful to control and are often discarded at roadside zoos or sold to cheap traveling shows.
* Chimpanzee expert Steve Ross recently stated in the journal Science that the comical portrayal of chimpanzees in ads, TV shows, and movies has led to diminished concern for their plight as an endangered species.

"The days of using great apes for a cheap laugh are numbered, and Subaru's important decision to steer clear of using them in ads is helping to end this outdated practice," says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. "These sensitive animals deserve protection--not acting lessons."

PETA's correspondence with Subaru is available upon request. For more information, please visit PETA's Web site NoMoreMonkeyBusiness.com.