Tell Jack in the Box to Stop the Monkey Business

After receiving complaints about Jack in the Box's "Monkey Spaceship" commercial—which features chimpanzees dressed as astronauts while they build a spaceship—PETA immediately contacted the company to request that it pull the ad and pledge never to use great apes in commercials again. Jack in the Box has ignored our calls for the company to stop supporting this cruelty to animals.

Chimpanzees used on television and in movies and advertisements are typically just a few years old. Training them almost always includes physical abuse to ensure that the animals know "who's boss" and pay attention to the trainer. By the time that they are 8 years old—around the beginning of young adulthood—they are too powerful to be safely handled and are often discarded in hideous roadside zoos or warehoused in dismal, appalling conditions. PETA investigations have revealed that former "celebrity" chimpanzees were living in small cages littered with garbage and feces and that they were denied basic necessities—such as wholesome food and adequate veterinary care.
 
To make matters worse, in an article published in the journal Science in March 2008, a group of primatologists revealed that the "inappropriate portrayal of great apes in advertisements undermines the scientific, welfare, and conservation goals that we and many readers work hard to achieve."

Please urge Jack in the Box to stop airing this commercial immediately and follow the lead of Subaru, which recently enacted a policy to ban the use of great apes in all future advertising campaigns. Remind the company that there is no reason to use live apes as actors when animation, blue screen, computer-generated imagery (CGI), and other highly advanced technologies can produce realistic substitutes.