…was just a rumour.

In January 2013, a shocking headline appeared in the UK Daily Mirror. “Simples! Meerkats to be axed from Compare the Market adverts.”

“The cuddly creatures with their catchphrase “simples” could be phased out as early as this summer as bosses seek to freshen up the image of the insurance comparison website.

…The move will end the meerkats’ four-year run in one of the country’s most successful ad campaigns…,” the story stated.

The meerkat mascots were going to be replaced by real people. And there was to be a new catch-phrase, “a fizz-goggling range of savings”.

[A what?]

Yes, a new series of ads was launched that January, the first with Peep Show star, Robert Webb, hijacking the role of Aleksandr. In November, the meerkats returned, but only to introduce the new Compare the Market star – founder member of boy band, Take That, Gary Barlow.

But something had happened in Australia that made VCCP stop, look and listen. The meerkats were introduced here in February 2013. One year later, comparethemarkt.com.au had had nearly 3 million visits and the brand had become Australia’s leading online aggregator for health insurance comparison by brand market share.

So in August 2014, Aleksandr Orlov is still alive and thriving, here and there.

In fact, what Australia is yet to know is that the meerkats have adopted an African pup.  They did so last Christmas. And right now, Aleksandr and Sergei are visiting Africa to introduce Oleg, to his homeland so that he can discover his roots.

The 40 second ad is called homeland. It first aired on TV in the UK on Saturday 9 August. The story of Oleg in Africa will be told in in the UK in a series of ads that will air over six months.

The new chapter was written by Javier Romartinez and art directed by Stephen Misir. It remains a VCCP story as it has always been. Darren Walsh remains the director. He has still directed every episode, and all of them through Passion Pictures.

Comparethemarket has been running its meerkat ads since 2009.