ITV Digital Monkey

A brown sock monkey with a purple face and hands, the star (along with Johnny Vegas) of a series of adverts promoting ITV Digital. Once this campaign had caught the public imagination, ITV Digital began to bundle a free monkey with each subscription package they sold.

Because ITV Digital is probably not going to be around for much longer, and the only way to get a monkey is to subscribe to their expensive service, these 'limited edition' monkeys have been changing hands on eBay for ridiculous sums. The Make a Wish Foundation charity has gone one better by putting up for auction a selection of ITV Digital monkeys signed by celebrities, with proceeds going to charity. The one signed by Ant 'n' Dec is currently in the lead, at over £700.

Info on the charity monkeys:

http://members.ebay.co.uk/aboutme/wishmonkeyuk/

http://www.itvdigital.co.uk

Following the bankruptcy of ITV Digital due to it being unable to fulfill the contract made with the Football League for the TV rights to matches the ITV Digital monkey has been made redundant. A fight over ownership of the monkey has started, with both ITV Digital and their advertising agency claiming they own it. Once ownership has been decided it is likely to be sold to the highest bidder, such as a supermarket who want to use it in their advertising campaign.