Orangutan takes to streets after ad ban

AN animatronic orangutan has taken to the streets of London as part of a campaign to highlight how rainforest destruction threatens the ape.

The orangutan was seen clinging to a Christmas tree in Coin Street and walking the streets as part of supermarket Iceland’s campaign to offer shoppers a festive season without palm oil in their food.

The ape was designed and built by special effects artists and is controlled remotely and by a specialist puppeteer.

Last week, regulators banned Iceland’s Christmas advert from TV screens for being too political – a move that has prompted 600,000 people to sign a petition for it to be allowed to be shown.

The commercial, voiced by actress Emma Thompson and originally produced by Greenpeace, features a cartoon baby orangutan – “Rang-tan” – warning its rainforest home is being cleared for palm oil plantations. Since it was banned it has had more than 12 million views on Facebook, the retailer said.

The company pledged in April to take palm oil out of 130 food lines by the end of 2018, a move which it said would reduce demand by more than 500 tonnes per year.