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Brands can't stop talking about baby monkey Punch & his soft toy

Brands shared Punch-themed posts in mixed tones, echoing a long trend of leveraging viral animals like cats, dogs and penguins for visibility.

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Payal Navarkar
New Update
fi - 2026-02-23T183525.360

I had almost booked my flights for Japan last week, and so many other chronically online people must have. Why, you may ask? It was to save baby Punch from his bullies at the Ichikawa zoo.

That might sound like an overreaction. But if you have been on the internet in the past few weeks, you know it is not. The story of a baby macaque, rejected by his mother and clutching a stuffed toy for comfort, moved enough people online to send a zoo in Japan into a global news cycle. And where the internet goes, brands follow.

Punch is a Japanese macaque, born last July at Ichikawa zoo in Japan. His mother abandoned him shortly after birth. Without her, he might not have learned the social behaviours that macaque groups run on. Zookeepers gave him a stuffed orangutan toy as a substitute for comfort.

But, Punch did not arrive alone. He came after a pattern.

Last month, it was a penguin - filmed walking alone towards a mountain, separated from its colony. What was, in all likelihood, routine penguin behaviour became something else entirely once it hit social media. People saw loneliness. They saw themselves. The penguin became an accidental mascot for modern isolation.

Before that, in 2024, there was Moo Deng, a pygmy hippopotamus from Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. Moo Deng was very small and very round and did the things that small, round animals do. That was enough. She became one of the most talked-about animals of the year. In the same year, Ava, a golden tabby tiger also from Thailand, drew similar attention - people watched her videos, shared them, and treated her like a celebrity.

None of these animals did anything particularly unusual. What changed was the lens through which people chose to look at them.

When we see something so overwhelmingly small or soft, we might want to squeeze it. It is not aggression in any harmful sense, but cuteness aggression. Moo Deng and Ava sit squarely in this category.

The penguin and Punch tap into something slightly different. They are not just cute. They are relatable in the way that only vulnerability can make something relatable. A child who clings to the one thing that does not push them away. These are not just animal stories; people associated human emotions with the incidents and that gave it an emotional storyline.

While Punch was given the toy, he bonded with it completely. He carried it everywhere. But the toy could not protect him from the other macaques, who chased him, dragged him, and pushed him out.

Early footage showed him wandering along the edges of the enclosure alone, the stuffed orangutan in his arms. Later clips showed him being harassed while still holding it. One video, which spread particularly fast, showed him being cornered while clutching the toy to his chest.

The brief moment of relief came when footage emerged of an older monkey sitting beside Punch and grooming him. That clip circulated as fast as the distressing ones.

By the time the story peaked, #Punch had 2.8 million posts across social media platforms. The zoo had not run a campaign. There was no press release. A baby monkey with a stuffed toy had done it on its own.

Brands took notice and posted creatives referencing Punch, some expressing solidarity. The posts ranged in tone from sincere to strategic, and often both at once. This is not unusual. Brands have been attaching themselves to animal virality long before this, like cat memes, dogs, penguin, etc.

In this case, IKEA went a little further.

It sells a plush orangutan toy called DJUNGELSKOG. It has been in their range for years. After Punch's story spread, IKEA made a decision.

For Punch, DJUNGELSKOG is not a toy. It is a mother. The brand renamed DJUNGELSKOG ‘Mamá de Punch’, Spanish for Punch's mother. They did not stop there. IKEA donated the toy to the zoo, making the gesture concrete.

It was a piece of marketing that worked because it did not feel like marketing. The connection was already there. Punch had made it. The brand found it and put a name on it.

Here are some brands that showed their support for Punch on social media:

IKEA India

Hladiram's

Flipkart minutes

Visit Italy

Flipkart

Delhi Police

Bistro by Blinkit

Badawear

Max Fashion India

Union Co-living

Raffaello India

Tata PUNCH

Netflix India

Unrban Monkey

Kerela Tourism

Nykaa man

Popsugar

Punch is still at Ichikawa zoo. He still carries his toy. The internet's attention, as it always does, has begun to move elsewhere. The flights to Japan were never booked.

But what the past few weeks made visible, again, is how quickly people extend genuine feeling toward animals, and how that feeling, once it exists, becomes material. For brands that pay attention, an animal trending on social media is not just a content opportunity. Each time, the internet shows up. Each time, it brings the brands with it.

Did you come across any other brands joining the trend? If yes, then share it with us at content@socialsamosa.com or post it in the comments section below.

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