Another year, another round of PETA’s “Great Ape Pledge” PSA campaign which aims to bring awareness of the plight of primates that suffer physical/psychological abuse at the hands of the entertainment industry. BBDO New York, which has taken the “Pledge” before with its nifty auto-correct effort from two years ago, joins forces with PETA once again for the spot above, which also features VO services from Oscar-winner Adrien Brody and VFX/production work from The Mill. If you stick around for the end, you’ll see that no real ape was used in the above PSA, which reemphasizes PETA’s whole purpose for launching “The Great Ape Pledge” in the first place.

Instead, the parties involved hammer home the message that primates shouldn’t be used as actors by creating  a photo-real CG chimp that’s seemingly at its wit’s end. If the stark message touched a nerve or inspired you to pledge (it’s perhaps a bit more effective than auto-correct messaging), you can go here. Credits after the jump.

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Over the years, primates have become the stars of some of advertising’s all-time classic spots. But, as a few creatives know, the use of apes, monkeys and the like in commercials can lead to physical and psychological animal abuse, and many times the stars of advertising aren’t quite given ethical treatment.

To fight against this problem that many aren’t aware of, BBDO NY has recently taken PETA’s “Great Ape Pledge,” encouraging creatives to make a pledge to avoid using monkeys in advertising at the campaign’s website. Want to take the pledge, but are sometimes forgetful when writing a spot? Well, the two parties involved give you exact wording to place in Microsoft Word’s Auto Correct function should you type “ape,” “monkey” or “gorilla.” As PETA puts it, “By signing on, you commit to refusing to use any live great apes in your work. Because great apes deserve better.” Indeed they do. Credits, and a memo regarding the campaign from BBDO CCO David Lubars after the jump.

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