Price comparison site Comparethemarket has pulled some adverts featuring Russian meerkat Aleksandr Orlov following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The company, which spends tens of millions on marketing in the UK annually, said it had reviewed its media plan to make sure the adverts did not appear around news bulletins on the Ukrainian conflict.
“The Comparethemarket meerkats are fictional characters. They have no association with Russia and the current situation,” a spokesperson for the company, which is owned by the Peterborough-based financial services firm BGL, said in a statement.
“We are continually reviewing our advertising to ensure we’re being sensitive to the current situation.”
Orlov, a Russian billionaire meerkat from Moscow, has appeared in Comparethemarket’s adverts since 2009, and is best known for his catchphrase “simples”.
So popular was Orlov’s phrase, it was included in the Collins English Dictionary in 2010.
The character, who is voiced by the actor Simon Greenall, has helped Comparethemarket become one of the biggest comparison sites in the UK, with visits to its website increasing significantly in the six months following the launch of Orlov.
In 2010, Orlov’s own autobiography was released, titled A Simples Life: The Life and Times of Aleksandr Orlov.
It came after controversy following an opinion piece in The Guardian, in August 2009, which accused the advert series of racism for mocking Eastern European accents.
However, the Advertising Standards Authority stated it had not received any similar complaints and, until now, Orlov had continued to feature on British screens.
The move by Comparethemarket comes as brands around the world face backlash for any ties they have to Russia.
Last week, British supermarkets came under pressure on social media to rename chicken kievs to “kyivs” to show solidarity with Ukraine, whose capital is Kyiv in Ukrainian, Kiev in Russian.
Meanwhile American restaurant chain Applebees was forced to apologise and pull its adverts from television last week after a light-hearted advert promoted its menu during news coverage of the invasion.
