Johnny Vegas and his sidekick Monkey, stars of the famous advertising campaign to promote the ill-fated ITV Digital, are to make a television comeback as the new face of PG Tips.
The campaign has been created by newly appointed agency Mother - the firm behind the original ads for ITV Digital that first aired in 2001 - and is expected to appear in the autumn.
Monkey's return is likely to outrage ITV executives who fought an almost year-long legal battle with Mother for the rights following the closure of ITV Digital in early 2002.
The resolution reached between administrators Deloitte Touche, who wanted to sell Monkey as an asset to appease liquidators, and Mother saw Monkey donated to Comic Relief.
Because the deal stated that Mother will manage the use of Monkey in any ads - providing its creative resource for free - it is thought Comic Relief will benefit from Monkey's appearance in the PG Tips ads.
DDB London, the agency that previously handled PG Tips since its creation in 1930, introduced the famous chimpanzee ads that aired for over 40 years until animal rights activists forced them off TV screens in 2002.
The chimps were replaced by the T-Birds, a campaign featuring a household of animated birds.
Monkey has made several TV appearances since the demise of ITV Digital. In March 2003, it played a one-off role in the TV coverage of Comic Relief and appeared in support TV and poster advertising.
And in November that year Mother was commissioned to create a pilot TV show, called Watch With Monkey, planned to be a 50-minute one-off special for BBC1.
The £10m PG Tips account is the second piece of Unilever business to move to Mother this year. In January, the agency took Pot Noodle from United London. It also had a place on the Unilever roster with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter".
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