Sprint Nextel Corp. said Thursday it will no longer use great apes in its advertisements after animal rights activists complained about an ad by the wireless provider that features a chimpanzee.
The Overland Park, Kan.-based company said the ad will stop running in movie theaters on July 3, when it already was scheduled to end. It also said it will not use great apes in future ads.
“Sprint and its advertising agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, take all necessary precautions to ensure any animals appearing in Sprint advertising are taken care of and are treated well,” the company said in a brief statement posted on its Web site.
A Sprint spokesman declined further comment.
The ad, meant to encourage theatergoers to turn off their cell phones before the movie, features a chimp movie star and his agent negotiating over the phone with producers for a part in a film.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals asked Sprint to pull the ads last month, saying animal trainers are known to abuse the animals they work with. The organization said it didn’t have evidence the chimpanzee used in Sprint’s ad had been abused.
At one point, PETA awarded Sprint a “Baddy,” which the organization assigns to companies with problematic advertising.
PETA upped the ante earlier this month when actress Anjelica Huston wrote about the poor treatment of some animal performers in Hollywood in a letter to Sprint CEO Dan Hesse.
Kristie Phelps, assistant director for PETA’s Animals in Entertainment campaign, welcomed Sprint’s decision. The wireless provider joins a number of U.S. companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Gap Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co., that have agreed to not use great apes in advertising.
“We’re very pleased they’ve reached this compassionate decision,” Phelps said. “Every leading zoologist has come out against the use of great apes in entertainment because … you must use dominance and fear to get chimpanzees to perform.”
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More