Scientists are devising a series of billboards directed at monkeys to see if advertising works on them too, reports the New Scientist.

The scientists plan to introduce a new food into the environment of a troop of Capuchin monkeys in the form of two different colors of identically-tasting jello. Brand A will be supported by advertising, brand B will not.

To target the monkeys, the ad agency the primatologists teamed up with developed two different billboards.

“After we settled on what they were being sold and that we were going to be doing ‘sex sells’, we really wanted to make a very direct ad. We wanted to shoot our subjects involved in normal day-to-day life,” one of the scientists said.

So, one of the billboards shows a shot of exposed female genitals along with the logo for brand A. The other billboard shows the alpha male of the troop along with the brand A logo.

This is pretty much what modern advertising is for humans so if there is a natural advertising response in primates, this will probably work.

After the troop is exposed to the advertising for a while, they will be given a choice of which brand they want to eat.

My money is on “brand A.”

The first advertising campaign for non-human primates [New Scientist]

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