Proud owner of an 'Aleksandr' meerkat

— Posted Thursday 28th January 2010 by Katie Wright

He is about 30 centimetres high, hates mongooses and his smoking jacket and cravat combination can only be described as dashing. For a meerkat – he has not done badly. 

I don’t care if some people think it’s a bit naff or even that the spoof comparethemeerkat.com website has increased traffic to the comparethemarket.com website by 70% (according to a Guardian article published last weekend), the Aleksandr Orlov meerkat character is brilliant.

The ads are funny, it makes you smile and let’s be honest it’s far more exciting than the standard car insurance advert. For me, it’s the fact that he is now a fully fledged character with his own personality that makes him so popular. Compare the Market ‘people’ (it’s a closely guarded secret who is behind the character) must be feeling awfully proud of themselves.

Clever media stunt or accidental star, either way Aleksandr Orlov has over 600,000 facebook friends and over 31,000 twitter followers all wanting to hear his latest hilarious catchphrases and comments. The best part about the whole thing? The fact a meerkat speaking broken Russian really is that entertaining. The website hosts downloadable screensavers and ringtones (yes and yes - I have both) and you can even watch out-takes ‘blooper’ style from his adverts.  

I shamelessly bid for my very own meerkat on eBay. Yes I know it is probably a knock off, but what the hell, it’s cute, hilarious and when you press his tummy he says ‘simples’!