Due to pressure from animal rights group PETA, Sprint has agreed to stop showing the chimpanzee movie star spot in movie theatres "turn off your cell phone."
Sprint has issued the following statement:
"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. As of July
3rd, an ad that appears in movie theatres and features a chimpanzee,
will no longer be shown. Sprint will not feature great apes in future
ads."
PETA's Liz Graffeo wrote in the PETA Blog:
"Chimpanzees and other great apes who are forced into the entertainment industry are ripped away from their mothers when they are only days old, are
trained by being beaten, kicked, and punched, and are then discarded at
filthy roadside zoos when they're no longer useful in show business."