When content "goes viral" mostly there isn't an agency or big brand budget behind it. The global or national collective imagination is caught by a snapshot of a Target employee, which was an agency idea as it turns out. But mostly we love sharing a disgruntled cat memes or GIFS of a a guy making potato salad. So it's not really surprising that Shabani the strangely handsome Gorilla from Japan became an overnight internet celebrity sensation.

Shabani's fame first grew in Japan. According to knowyourmeme.com, Shabani is an 18-year-old silverback gorilla who lives at Higashiyama Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Nagoya. In March 2015, a photo of his went viral, and soon young Japanese women started flocking to the zoo and swooning at the handsome ape. From there it was just a small step to an international stage, with major news sources like CNN, BuzzFeed, Mashable and the Huffington Post jumping on the story of an unusual sex symbol (Gawker created a 5 question quiz with questions you will feel increasingly uncomfortable to know the answer to).

We thought it would be fun to see Shabani endorsing big brands like Nespresso or Calvin Klein - brands known for their celebrity endorsements - and invited our designers to photoshop Shabani unofficially endorsing top global brands like Nike and Nespresso. Our designers quickly came to the consensus that Shabani was perfect for brands focused on luxury, masculinity, and indulgence. So George Clooney, Brad Pitt and co can move over – there's a new star in town.

Calvin Klein

Nintendo

Nespresso

Nike

Rolex

CK (we couldn't help ourselves – it had to be included twice)

Apple Watch

Comment on This Article:

Does Shabani do it for you, or are you left cold by all the fuss? What do you think he should endorse? Tell us in the comments!

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Written by Hanna Schenkel on Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Hanna Schenkel is a freelance writer, editor and marketing specialist based in Sydney. Her critical and creative work has been published nationally and anthologised. Get in touch via LinkedIn.