| Knowsley Safari Park's infamous baboons are the | | | | the baboons a close-up view of their advertising |
| stars of a new taxi advertising campaign which urges | | | | equivalents and - predictably - it didn¹t take long |
| the England squad to repeat their historic victory in | | | | before they were on top of the cab and up to their |
| the 1966 tournament. | | | | old tricks. |
| A group of football fans from Africa are backing | | | | Safari Park General Manager, David Ross, |
| England's World Cup campaign - despite the fact that | | | | commented: The baboons are always great fun but |
| this year's competition is being held on their home | | | | they are the vandals of the animal world and they |
| turf. | | | | weren¹t going to ignore a colourful target like our |
| The soccer supporters in question's are Knowsley | | | | World Cup taxi. |
| Safari Park's infamous baboons, who are the stars of | | | | The driver, Ray Grocott, said that although he was |
| a new taxi advertising campaign which urges the | | | | used to dealing with problem fares this time he was |
| England squad to repeat their historic victory in the | | | | just glad to get out of the monkey jungle with most |
| 1966 tournament. | | | | of his cab intact, even though a couple of the |
| The origins of the campaign can be traced back to | | | | baboons had left unwanted Otips on his bonnet! |
| the 2006 World Cup in Germany when the | | | | Steve Hale, Operations Manager for Transport Media, |
| mischievous inhabitants of the Knowsley monkey | | | | the company co-ordinating the campaign, said: "We're |
| jungle amassed a huge collection of England flags | | | | delighted with the taxis - at the design stage we |
| stolen from visitors cars. | | | | knew they were going to be good but they're so |
| As a result, attraction bosses were forced to issue a | | | | much better in the flesh than we expected". |
| warning to families to remove the flags before | | | | This is a unique campaign. There's nothing like it |
| setting off on the safari drive. | | | | anywhere else in the country and we're sure it will |
| Now some of the photographs of the baboons antics | | | | bring a smile to people's faces throughout the region. |
| from four years ago have been used to create an | | | | The antics of the 140-strong troop of baboons are |
| eye-catching promotional livery which is being | | | | an ongoing problem for park bosses. Last year they |
| featured on 30 taxis operating in towns and cities all | | | | had to warn visitors with rooftop luggage boxes to |
| over the North West. | | | | avoid the monkey jungle after the baboons learnt |
| To launch the campaign safari chiefs decided to give | | | | how to break into them. |