The Trunk Monkey rules

Friday’s Business section of The Oregonian featured Triumph of the Trunk Monkey by Helen Jung. The Trunk Monkey is actually a chimpanzee, seen performing heroic rescues in several different ads for new cars. When I first saw these commercials for Suburban Auto Group, I had not heard of the dealership and assumed the ad was like those for Chicago-area fast food stores on cable channels – from somewhere else, for someone else. But I was so amused by the commercial, I looked up Suburban on Google, and was delighted to find it’s in Sandy. The company creating the Trunk Monkey ads, is local, too.

R/West (Warning: annoying background music and over-fancy web site) began making the commercials for Suburban Auto Group in 2003. The agency, headed by President Sean Blixseth, has now made one for a New Jersey dealership, which will be shown during the Super Bowl today. I enjoy silly commercials. I think it’s fitting the Super Bowl football game has developed the tradition of being the national championship of commercial premieres, and I’m looking forward to seeing the New Jersey version of the Trunk Monkey today. Although, I doubt it will overtake my all-time favorite Super Bowl commercial: the zebra refereeing the Budweiser horses’ game.