There's this commercial, you may have seen recently for Axa Equitable. (CLICK HERE TO WATCH IT) There is a couple in bed and there's someone talking to them about their finances. We cut to a Gorilla. He gets ready to leave and says something like, "but don't listen to me. i'm just the eight hundred pound gorilla in the room".
Now, I think there are two expressions that come into play here:
A) There's a joke that goes something like "Where does an 800 pound gorilla sleep?" The answer is "Anywhere he wants to!".
B) When there's an important issue that folks aren't talking about it's known as "the elephant in the room".
Is it possible that the creators of the commercial got these two things confused? Can someone explain this to me?
Saturday, June 24, 2006
800 Lb. Gorilla
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29 comments:
I think it's a refernce to "you can't avoid the 8oo pound gorilla in the room".
I agree, that's what it's in reference to, but traditionally, the animal that's commonly used in that metaphor is an elephant, not a gorilla.
My contention is that the "800 Pound Gorilla" is traditionally used to denote a person or entity that has unmatched power over its surroundings.
See: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=800-pound+gorilla
Thank you. these ads have been driving me nuts. what are these guys trying to pull or did no one on the team not realize they got their metaphors mixed up?
Maybe AXA chose to combine the two because they thought that Retirement Planning is being ignored and wanted to show "unmatched power" against other Financial Services Companies. I was confused at first too...still waiting for a response from the AXA marketing department in NY. I'll let ya know what i find out.
I like to think it was a disgruntled writer who wanted to secretly send the message that AXA are corporate bullies who'll make you their bitch if you sign on with them. But accidentally implying that by confusing his metaphors would still be reasonably funny.
(Also: I came here by Googling for the phrase after seeing the commercial.)
I think they inadvertently used the wrong metaphor. I found your blog because, for some reason, it bugged me so much that I searched the internet for SOMEONE else that noticed this.
How did they create a major advertising campaign without anybody catching it?
I too noticed that the boneheads who did this ad mixed the metaphors of the 800 lb gorilla and the elephant in the room. It's just amazing. The sad part is that only a few of us noticed (or cared maybe). Googling "800 lb gorilla" and "mixed metaphor" landed me here. Nice to know that there still some people on the ball!
So many children know about the 800 lb gorilla in the room today, that it would be heartless to get rid of the ad. To young people, it now means that there is something out there so obvious and everyone knows about it but no one really wants to point it out. Or, it means to ignore a problem when everyone knows its ther, but pretends everything is okay.
Sorry anonymous, but I seriously doubt that kids are that aware of AXA ads. And they're boneheaded, no explanation is good enough to hide that they just screwed up their metaphors. And if they're that sloppy with their own ads, should you really trust them for financial services?
forget what i wrote before. simply, the idiom, 800 pound gorilla in the room represents something you can't possibly not see, but you continue to avoid. look it up people. the elephant is a similar idiom, but AXA was correct when it chose the 800 pound gorilla, because retirement is something everyone know is coming, but they dont plan well for. then it hits them that they dont have enough money to stop working. AXA is trying to get people to plan before it is too late.
hope this helps.
Isaac is full of it and must work for AXA. They're definately mixing their metaphors and it drives me nuts as well. We can examine all the definitions on the internet - I think everyone with a brain will agree. The 800-pound gorilla is the person or thing that can throw it's weight around. The "elephant in the room" is the thing that is the thing that people know is there but choose to ignore. The first blogger may be right that there's a reference to an "800 lb gorilla in the room." The fact remains that even so, they used that metaphor incorrectly when they intended the 'elephant' metaphor. Just goofy and stupid and both the ad agency and the marketing people who approved this should be fired.
Yes! I googled: 'axa equitable 800 pound gorilla elephant' I couldn't believe that a national ad campaign got this metaphor so wrong. Thanks for proving me right to the wife. :)
Bugged me too. The following quote from the VP of Marketing and Product development confirms the mistake:
"The 800-pound gorilla in the room represents everyman's procrastination," said Barbara Goodstein, executive vice president of marketing and product development for the New York-based firm's annuity and life products. "Baby Boomers know they need to take action to ensure that their income needs in retirement are addressed. The gorilla will make them think about what they're pretending to ignore."
THANK YOU!
My head has been exploding every time I see that commercial.
How is it that not a single person, anywhere in the entire line from writing to post-production said, "Hey, we're mixing our metaphors."
800 pound gorilla = the biggest "player"
elephant in the room = the obvious issue no one will acknowledge
I don't have much faith in the expertise of a financial firm that can't keep metaphors straight.
-Muzz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorilla
Gorilla's aren't even that heavy. The biggest ones in captivity are 600 pounds. I wouldn't trust a financial services company that not only uses cliched metaphors, but uses them wrong.
For some strange reason, blog comments here only show times, not dates, which is pretty well worthless. As a result, I can't tell when these comments have been coming in. But the post shows a date of June 24, 2006 and I'm posting this comment on January 21, 2009--and AXA is STILL running these infernal commercials! I contend that no one with any sense would knowingly mix their metaphors in this way, but perhaps I am just wrong; perhaps they really did intentionally mix these metaphors--if not then they at the very least indicate a complete indifference to the issue in their running the adds for a period exceeding 2 and a half years! Their brazenness and/or apathy are truly astonishing and for me, like so many of you, they certainly predispose me to avoid doing business with AXA.
I just found an authority that (unfortunately) acknowledges "800 lbs gorilla in the room" as a legitimate idiom--but note that it indicates the original idiom is in fact "elephant in the room" and that "800 lbs gorilla in the room" probably sprang from mixing metaphors. AXA may or may not be responsible for this mixed metaphor, but they're certainly perpetuating it.
http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersites/oald7/wotm/wotm_archive/elephant_in_the_room?cc=global
And here's an even better resource for proving that AXA is using a mixed metaphor:
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/An-elephant-in-the-room
I love it--it comes right out and calls "800 lbs gorilla" a "contamination" of "elephant in the room!"
Sigh. I am astonished that there are people who would defend the use of the gorilla in this commercial. I have been tortured by this god damn commercial for a long time now. It's supposed to be an elephant. Each time I see this commercial, it induces an aneurysm. If someone needs to "research" this on the web, they haven't been speaking English very long. Arg.
Oh thank God. I'm not the only one who noticed they mixed their metaphors. And they've made a whole SERIES of these stupid ads. In each one, the CGI on the gorilla looks ridiculous. He moves way too fast. Sure he's huge, but his body doesn't seem to have any mass. Looks like a fifth grader made the ads on his mom's macbook.
the 800lb. gorilla in the room is something that can not be ignored, just like the elephant in the room. this metaphor has been mixed for many, many years and is actually quite more, modern and trendy in the current form. therefore, the ad people in this case were spot on.
--800lb. gorilla
foerster, townley, yamborac
as one poster suggested, this metaphor is well known by young people. perhaps, the marketing team is a bunch of young go-getters. i am 40, and i have been using this metaphor for over half a dozen years now. it is my name on the msn boards and is used by many blogs and people. imagine my chagrin when i went to create some pages for it, and i could not because i had been beaten to the punch.
--800lb. gorilla
After months of wondering "When are they going to change this freaking commercial?" I decided that I must be crazy, so I googled the mixed metaphor. I am relieved that I'm not alone. Bottom line...do you want to trust your money and your future to a company with leadership that is so out of touch, imprecise, ignorant or condescending that they would pass this through to the public?
kk
Same here. It's either "800 lb gorilla" or the "elephant in the room". The mixed metaphor doesn't really work and reeks of executives forcing a fit between a slogan and mascot. To the literate and well-read, it makes AXA look stupid. Not good when you are a financial services firm looking to impress a moneyed clientele.
Hi there - I will date my comment as there are only times listed (5/15/2010). I started talking to my wife about this when I had to take out the laptop and look it up. I will start by saying I laughed out loud at a lot of the comments because it's the first time I've really looked through a blog and appreciated the curiosity of people.
Since I'm on the soap box, the ad is a travesty. The elephant in the room was the initial metaphor which clearly refers to an issue that is obvious but with which is not being dealt. Basically, you can substitute any large zoo animal in this metaphor to represent something that's hard to ignore, but that doesn't make it right. Sure, the mixed metaphor may have been around for a while, but that doesn't make it right either. AXA marketing execs should be fired, because it really shows a lack of due diligence on their part - the term due diligence here referring to more than just one google search and an affirmation through wikipedia which is not an authority, rather a majority.
Average gorilla is 400 lb., even fat gorilla's in zoos are 600 lb. 800 lb. gorilla is a larger than life problem. It's an exaggeration.
Elephant in the room is just an uncomfortable situation. the phrase was popular around when King Kong came out
http://techmediatainment.blogspot.com/2009/09/800-pound-gorilla-in-room-is-probably.html
I like how this guy did RESEARCH before just saying it's dumb. Imagine that, haters in the building.
I'm glad I could actually understand now before I just jumped to the conclusion that I already knew they messed up before I checked it out. OH they combined those two things, Shaun Townley is clown shoes
http://techmediatainment.blogspot.com/2009/09/800-pound-gorilla-in-room-is-probably.html
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