Gorilla Marketing

This morning, fellow editor Jeff Perkel, and I ran into a hairy ape and a healthy dose of irony. A man wearing a gorilla mask and a dark grey suit passed just in front of our office. The monkey-man?s unmasked companion was wearing a yellow t-shirt with the words ?Has Evolution Made a Monkey out of You?? Catching the whiff of unchecked creationist dogma on the streets of Philadelphia, we dashed out for a quick interview. Fortunately, ID proponents haven?t resorted to ?guerilla marketing? just

Written byBrendan Maher
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This morning, fellow editor Jeff Perkel, and I ran into a hairy ape and a healthy dose of irony. A man wearing a gorilla mask and a dark grey suit passed just in front of our office. The monkey-man?s unmasked companion was wearing a yellow t-shirt with the words ?Has Evolution Made a Monkey out of You?? Catching the whiff of unchecked creationist dogma on the streets of Philadelphia, we dashed out for a quick interview. Fortunately, ID proponents haven?t resorted to ?guerilla marketing? just yet. Not exactly, anyway.Nate Wood, 23, and Jason Hunter, 22, were standing on the corner of 5th St. and Market promoting ?Ape to Man,? a History Channel special on the origins of Homo sapiens running this coming Sunday August 7. The two marketers had little to offer as far as details. It was definitely about evolution, ?the Darwin kind,? Hunter said. Wood, from behind his mask told me that he didn?t believe it personally. Hunter had more to say, ?I believe it in certain forms,? he said mentioning something about giraffes and adaptation. But that we descended from apes? ? No way. It?s important to know ?both sides,? they said, to argue effectively. Nevertheless, Wood didn?t appear too conflicted about promoting a show that goes against his beliefs. ?I need the money,? he said. Apparently $20-per hour covers not only that, but the idea of standing on a street corner in a gorilla suit on the first day of August. Stay cool, man.
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