Orange UK is preparing to ditch its much derided “animals” campaign in favour of a generic branding campaign. The Animals campaign, costing around US$18 million was due to run to the end of this year, and was based around classifying customers as a type of animal when selecting their monthly tariffs. Orange said that it had uncovered four distinctive new groups with common personality and taste traits – the fun loving Dolphins, no-nonsense Racoons, sociable Canaries and the no-expense-spared Panthers.

However, the campaign has been largely scorned by media pundits, and it seems – the customers. The campaign will still continue in the press while a final decision is taken, but all poster adverts have been scrapped in favour of a general branding campaign, believed to be preparing to support the re-branding of the France Telecom owned internet service provider, Wanadoo as Orange Internet.