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Under the Influence

The famous commercial where the world remembered the gorilla, not the brand

The luggage ad started in the zoo and ended in the permanent collection at the New York Museum of Modern Art. But do you remember which brand was behind it?
CBC Radio ·
American Tourister commercial demonstrating the strength of its luggage by giving orange suitcase to a caged gorilla to throw around.
American Tourister commercial demonstrates the strength of its luggage by giving a suitcase to a caged gorilla. (YouTube – American Tourister Europe)
Under the Influence27:26Seeing is Believing: The Power of Demonstration Commercials

You may remember this commercial from 1970.

It begins in an empty gorilla cage at the zoo. A zookeeper quickly opens the cage door, throws in a red suitcase and shuts the door again. Suddenly, a sliding door opens at the back of the cage and a gorilla bounds out. He picks up the suitcase and starts throwing it against the walls. He bounces it off the bars, he throws it on the floor, he jumps up and down on it. Then a graphic appears for the name of the luggage brand.

Most people say this Samsonite commercial is one of the best of all time. But here's the thing: the commercial wasn't for Samsonite. It was for its number one rival – American Tourister.

Samsonite, at the time, had double the market share of American Tourister. But sometimes in the marketing world, the bigger brand gets all the credit. When people are asked to remember the best luggage commercial of all time, they default to Samsonite because Samsonite spent more advertising money, it is the only brand name they can remember.

Over time, Samsonite solved that disconnect by purchasing the American Tourister company and adopted the gorilla imagery in all its retail stores.

Advertising Age magazine ranks "Gorilla" one of the top 100 commercials of the 20th century, and it is included in the permanent collection at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

For more on Demonstration Commercials, click or tap the play button above to hear the full Under the Influence episode. Find more episodes on the CBC Listen app or subscribe to the podcast.