Ventriloquist duo Keith Harris and Orville are the latest victims of laundry brand Surf’s 99 stains challenge. The green fluffy duck and his operator pipped spoon bender Uri Geller and glamour model Jordan to the dubious honour in a public vote. The £2.5m run, hitting screens now, shows the pair being ‘torture tested’ with chicken soup by TV comedians Adam and Joe. In the course of the action, Orville flies for the first time and Keith gets naked. The first in the series of advertisements featured dandy decorator Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen being dragged around a farmyard. Brand owner Lever Fabergé claimed the campaign had helped Surf become the fastest growing brand in laundry’s main wash sector last year. The Grocer’s Top Products Survey 2003 showed that sales of the standard powder had grown by 18% to nearly £40m.

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