The website for price comparison Comparethemarket has removed its ads with animatronic Russian meerkat Aleksandr Orlov from news bulletins in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine.
It is spending hundreds of millions of pounds to market its products in UK every year, in the fierce market for price comparison websites, announced that it had revised its media strategy to ensure that ads weren’t placed on top of the content, such as news reports regarding Ukrainian conflict. Ukrainian conflict.
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“They do not have any connection to Russia and the current political situation. We’re always checking our advertisements to make sure we’re aware of the current political climate.”
The advertisements, which include Orlov the Russian billionaire meerkat who hails from Moscow as well as his sidekick, Sergei – have run since 2009 and have played a major role in transforming the company’s 16-year old from being a non-entity to becoming one of the leading websites for comparison across the UK.
Orlov’s catchy phrase, “simples”, became so popular that It was later included into The Collins English Dictionary in 2010.
The character is played by Simon Greenall, perhaps best known as Michael the handyman from the show I’m Alan Partridge is competing against other enthralling creations in the market for price comparison, including the opera-singing Gocompare Gio Compario, voiced by Welsh vocalist Wynne Evans.
The attack on Ukraine has focused attention on companies that use, or are selling products that could be connected to this conflict, or Russia.
This week British grocery stores were under fire from social media platforms to change the name of chickens kievs as “kyivs” to show solidarity with Ukraine which is the capital of Ukraine. Kyiv and Kyiv in Ukrainian, Kiev in Russian.
Applebees, the US company Applebees has been forced to cancel an ad on TV that was a lighthearted promotion campaign following CNN showed it on the other side of a split-screen the news coverage included air raid sirens being heard throughout Kiev. Ukrainian capital.
