The Good, the Bad, and the Monkey Part 2: The PG Tips Era

oh yeah we're back for those long time media mementos fans out there and by a long time i mean from the beginning long time you'd know that our second slash third video ever on the channel was the good the bad and the monkey the story of itv digital and let me tell you i poured my heart and soul into that thing and i'm still proud of it today i mean yeah the mic's a little wonky but other than that the contents hold up very well especially for someone who doesn't live in the country that it took place in for those who didn't watch the video let me summarize there was this terrible tv company called itv digital formerly known as on digital that had the worst service around it was buggy it had bad signal and it was easy to pirate but they had a great advertising campaign about a couch potato man named al and his sidekick monkey named monkey and they just talked about itv digital although as time went on the ads would get crazier and crazier to get people's attention and it worked until it didn't see the ads were so good that people wanted to try itv digital all while suddenly realizing this stuff sucks and then itv digital went out of business but that wasn't the end for monkey and al because the tea company pg tips ended up taking monkey now for their own using them as their own mascots for quite some time i touched upon that briefly in the itv digital video but not a lot because it didn't really fit with the thesis now we're gonna give these adverts their due strap in folks it's time for part two so as mentioned in the last video the first pg tips add with these two was about monkey coming back to the house because apparently after itv digital went out of business he ran away and al stayed to face the music and according to his pantry got addicted to pg tips oh well as long as he's doing all right and not hurting anybody the two decide to get back into the advertising game and decide to advertise what else pg tips so for the first main line ads they kind of follow the same flow that itv digital had being kinda low key and about the characters just chilling and being themselves talking about the product and they're definitely a lot more mellow than the itv digital ones right out the gate there's not a lot of music there's not a lot of sound there's not a lot of background noise it's just monkey now being monkey and l do i mind absolutely not do i think they're better or worse than itv digital that's a little different because they're both so similar and so different it's kinda hard to determine what's better and what's worse they're apples and oranges really but trust me they would not stay mellow and low-key for very long because like itv digital they decided to ramp up the energy and ramp up the scale and ramp up the everything in order to make the ads we know and love today however unlike with itv digital they didn't make everything bigger so that they could plead with people to give them some attention no this time they did it because they simply had more to do maybe it was because the crew had a bigger budget or the writers decided to act on all the opportunities they couldn't follow up with with itv digital i don't know but not only does the spirit of the old ads live on but they decide to expand on them in every single way except for one thing the free monkey you would get with buying fiji tips yes they did decide to carry over that itv digital deal where if you signed up with them you got a free monkey only this time the monkeys weren't nearly as impressive i mean that is kind of obvious you don't really expect to get the same kind of freebie when you sign up for a cable service than you would when buying some bags of tea but these monkeys are kinda puny not bad for what you get of course they're nice little freebies but my guess is that itv digital spoiled me i can't help it but what these monkeys lack in size they make up for in variety monkey has a ton of different shirts now and you can collect them all trust me i want to but it's really hard to do it here in the states i had to pay an arm and a leg for my monkey from itv digital so these pg tips ones no way with shipping it becomes ridiculous and don't even get me started on those argos aliens i've been trying to get those for three years to make a video about them and i just can't seem to find the full set and especially not for a good price one of these days one of these days anyways back to the adverts themselves nowhere is this bigger scale more exemplified than with the rainforest alliance series do you know what that is well if not let me introduce you rainforest alliance is a charity organization that makes sure that those who pick tea leaves get good wages and fair treatment npg tips decided to team up with them you know how i know they would not stop talking about it to help make sure the people who pick the team earn a decent living have good working conditions and medical care they help make sure the people who pick pg have good working conditions and a decent living and get medical care also i don't know why but monkey sounds really different in the rainforest alliance series maybe ben miller was too busy to reprise his role maybe he was trying out a new different voice i don't know but i kind of prefer his real voice because you know that's kind of the joke the real-life human is more the cartoon and the puppet is more the real-life person this is just nitpicking though it doesn't really matter but anyways now with itv digital out of the picture monkey now could advertise with a good reputable business one that people liked and wanted more of so now we can see what would happen if their momentum with itv digital didn't stop they would have kept building and building becoming semi-cultural icons it seems like everyone in the uk at least knew vaguely who they were and there might have also been a slight bit of nostalgia factor factoring into them as well both through the itv digital ads and the fact that pg tips used to advertise with monkeys all the time specifically the tips family in fact that's probably why they wanted monkey now to begin with not only did they see that they were popular but they had a history with monkeys so why not keep it going it fit the theme it fit the branding and it fit their history sounds like a great deal a match made in heaven and sure enough it was it seems like whatever the crew wanted to do they could do it even ads that were a minute and a half long and by the way this one here it's the taste is easily the best ad that these two have ever appeared in it's basically a music video perfectly synced with their emotions as they're making tea they also had a little mini series so to speak of different adverts that showcased each new pg tips flavor that was coming to the market this one was about monkey getting abducted by an eagle and stuck in its nest with all the little eaglets and he's telling them about the different flavors of pg tips like the evening one the strong one and of course the fresh one although shouldn't every pg tips bag be the fresh one i don't know maybe it's a cultural thing but i don't really want to drink rancid tea that would not be a good look for pg tips let me tell you things kept going strong for a while but then suddenly al stopped appearing i noticed that when re-watching these ads al's role gets smaller and smaller after the eagle storyline to the point where he only appears for a couple seconds sometimes and hey sometimes not even at all it's just monkey all the time don't get me wrong monkey's great but part of what makes him work is al he can't have just the straight man on his own you need al to go alongside him even when al's in technically the entire ad monkey gets all the good stuff remember in itv digital when al would make the jokes and then monkey would rebound with an even funnier one that's why monkey was so funny but to see him reenact the infamous diner scene from when harry met sally it's funny but it seems more like something owl would do you know and then eventually al just stopped appearing altogether it was monkey only they never gave an explanation as to what happened to al in universe or as far as i'm aware even in real life but he was definitely missed monkey's good and all but you need more than just him but even monkey couldn't stay on for that much longer because in 2017 monkey was officially retired for good maybe johnny vegas and ben miller wanted to move on to other projects maybe pg tips decided to go with a new ad campaign because let's face it even the best ones can't last forever looking at you eminem's guys who knows what's gonna happen to you someday i fear that day if that should ever come monkey now were gone but not forgotten because to this day there's still a small devoted fan base to these guys whether you go from the old arrow or the new people love these guys because they were hilarious they were charming and best of all they were great admin they told you about the product in a way that was so ridiculous and absurd that you had to give it a try but it wasn't all silliness and comedy they really did tell you the good parts of their products whether it was itv digital or pg tips i learned a lot about both products from these guys i mean itv digital was terrible but i never would have known that by watching the ads and pg tips i mean i'm not really a tea guy but these guys really make me want to try it even though they're gone monkey and l got a lot of mileage when they were in use they survived one of the biggest company shutdown disasters in uk history they managed to get on to a reputable tea company and they even got a mini movie although to be fair it was more monkey that did as al didn't really appear if at all this was a tale of two continents and yes this was actually shown in theaters even though it wasn't feature length so in the uk they would air this thing in front of say horton hears a who or other family movies and yeah it's good really good in fact i'd like to cover it someday on medium mementos will i who knows maybe someday we'll see if we can fit it into the schedule but anyways monkey now i salute you guys you were some of the greatest pitch men of all time even though you're not real whether it was itv digital or pg tips these guys gave it their all to make you laugh make you learn and of course make you learn not to throw spoons at your friends because that looks dangerous well folks thanks for watching the video what'd you guys think do you prefer the itv digital or pg tips adverts comment below and let me know because i'm always excited to hear what you guys have to say well enough monkeying around i'm terrible it's time for the comment of the day and today's comment of the day goes to cars perry well this was depressing to quote bart simpson i didn't think this was possible but it both sucks and blows i totally agree i was expecting gorga to suck and blow in the best ways but it did not story of my life i suppose real quick i'd like to thank our patreon executive producers reseal leaf razor azarius michael bellamy and md the dude if you two would like your name right at the end of every media mementos video then consider donating to our patreon which has a link in the description below thank you all for watching and i'll see you guys next time

Channel: Media Mementos

Views: 3,044

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Id: yTEN25w20ks

Length: 10min 44sec (644 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 15 2022