Monkey, another popular anthropomorphic animal used in British advertising on products such as PG Tips and ITV Digital since 2001. Jones, Peter (22 August 2009). "Meerkat forces? Not good enough - Peter Jones"– via www.theguardian.com. Coronation Street viewers dejected after spotting change to every ad break". www.msn.com . Retrieved 17 May 2021. a b "Unveiled: Author who ghostwrote a meerkat's memoir". The Independent. 30 October 2010 . Retrieved 17 May 2023. I will admit, straight off the bat, that Star Wars was not really on my radar for a long time. I was aware of it, certainly. I had seen the three original films and had rather enjoyed them, but I didn’t really appreciate them until their 1997 re-release at the cinema. Once I got to see them on the big screen, I fell in love with the Saga.

Bob the Builder wasn’t just a show to us. We believed in the characters and their message of reduce, reuse, recycle. Bob was selling recycling years before it was cool! Wendy, his business partner and love interest, was one of the first strong female characters in kids’ TV. It’s nice to know you’ve played a vital part in getting that message to so many people. In April 2023, two new adverts were released. The first was VR, which features Sergei & Carl playing with virtual reality headsets whilst bumping into themselves. The second was Washing Machine, which saw Carl cleaning Aleksandr’s coat in a washing machine. He then takes it out and gives it to Sergei. However, much to Sergei's dismay, the coat had shrunk in the wash.

Patterson, Anthony; Khogeer, Yusra; Hodgeson, Julia (2013). "How to create an influential anthropomorphic mascot: Literary musings on marketing, make-believe, and meerkats". Journal of Marketing Management. 29 (1–2): 69–85. doi: 10.1080/0267257X.2012.759992. S2CID 144548527 . Retrieved 1 March 2022. Leigh, Rob (20 November 2012). "Meerkat mash up! Watch Aleksandr Orlov and pals perform Coronation Street theme tune in YouTube viral smash hit". mirror . Retrieved 10 July 2023. Personally, I quite enjoyed it the first time I saw it, but its a film that grows weaker with each re-watch. When doing a Star Wars marathon, I will watch it only for the sake of completeness, and sometimes not at all. We started in 2000. One of the reasons it was successful was that it was the only thing on during the Olympics that wasn’t sport. People who can’t stand sport were desperate for something else to watch. I did all 13 years. That’s 1,875 episodes. There were only two I didn’t do: a Eurovision special where they got Terry Wogan, and an Apprentice special which I’ve never understood to this day. Since the launch the comparethemeerkat campaign, several other companies have adopted marketing campaigns featuring anthropomorphic animal mascots, often citing the campaign's success as inspiration. This includes Thames Water's Otis The Otter, [19] and First Direct's Skint Skunk. [20] Criticism [ edit ]

Since the launch of Meerkat Movies, only Aleksandr and Sergei regularly appeared in the main television advertisements, though the Meerkovo characters continued to feature in the Coronation Street sponsorship bumpers after 2018. [ citation needed] In May 2018, Aleksandr and Sergei performed a rendition of Barbra Streisand's " Don't Rain on My Parade", from the film Funny Girl, to promote the Meerkat Movies campaign. Houston, Amy (2 February 2023). "Can a straight-talking skunk make First Direct famous again? Inside its new ad strategy". TheDrum.com . Retrieved 4 November 2023.

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comparethemarket.com is celebrating 40 years of Star Wars™ by introducing two new meerkat toys that are out of this galaxy Furniss, Elliot (5 January 2011). "Video: Idyllic Suffolk village stars in latest compare the meerkat TV advert". Ipswich Star . Retrieved 1 November 2019. I’ve always been obsessed with audio and it’s got me on some huge projects. Voicing the vicious podracer Sebulba in The Phantom Menace was amazing. As a kid, I would build Star Wars sets out of Coke bottles and papier-mache. And there I was on set taking notes from George Lucas.

In 2014, Aleksandr and Sergei featured on the Neighbourhood Watch logo to mark the charity's 50th anniversary. [10] a b Jones, Sam (24 October 2010). "Compare the memoir: insurance meerkat's life story on sale". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 17 May 2023. In addition to the seven main characters, there have been limited releases of the school teacher Maiya in a spy outfit, and baby Oleg in a safari outfit. [24] [25]In December 2018, Auto Sergei, an animatronic meerkat, was introduced, to make life "simples" and then was upgraded for credit card use. He featured in adverts where Aleksandr acts like a CEO for a big company, while Sergei takes on a similar appearance to Steve Jobs in some adverts. In December 2022 when Oleg & Ayana died out, an advert shows Aleksandr & Sergei at an airport to collect Aleksandr’s Australian nephew, Carl, who turns out to be a wombat. A new slogan, "Don't Wombat it, Meerkat it.", debuted along with this advert, with subsequent adverts showing Sergei suffering from various mishaps as a result of Carl's bumbling. In July 2019, in an advert for Meerkat Meals and Meerkat Movies, Aleksandr and Sergei are in San Francisco where they reunite with Oleg, who along with his friend Ayana, travelled from Africa to look for them after several bulldozers destroyed their home. In May 2023, another advert showed Carl making soup for Aleksandr and Sergei as thanks for letting him stay with them. However, Carl had misread the recipe book and had put a pint of chilli powder in the soup instead of just a pinch. Sergei eats the soup and collapses, due to the amount of chilli powder in the soup. The advert ends with a worried Aleksandr watching Sergei being taken away in an ambulance whilst Carl reads his recipe book and realises his mistake. The success of the 20th anniversary re-releases of the original films was enough to prompt George Lucas (creator of Star Wars) to re-visit his original plan to make three prequels, that would finally fill in the missing pieces of the saga, explaining how Darth Vader came to be who he was, and how the Empire rose and how the Jedi were destroyed. This new saga began with The Phantom Menace:

Meerkats Aleksandr and Sergei Join Neighbourhood Watch". Good News Shared. 30 July 2014 . Retrieved 1 November 2019. When I was asked to be the voice of a BBC Two daytime quiz show, my initial reaction was: “Oh God, another nail in the coffin of my career.” I had no idea it would turn into this behemoth that paved the way for other quiz shows. The biggest one is probably Pointless. They’ve ridden on our coat-tails ever since.This was a much better film overall. It wasn’t perfect by any means, and Hayden Christensen’s acting was painful at times, but the characters were more realised, the story more coherent and the film was infinitely more watchable than The Phantom Menace. It also gave us a great ground battle and a great fight in an asteroid field.