London - The hamster whose on-screen "death" in a TV jeans advert sparked a flood of complaints was yesterday said to be alive and well.
More than 200 horrified animal-lovers contacted the Independent Television Commission to complain about a Levi's ad which showed Kevin the hamster being prodded with a pencil as he lay motionless and apparently dead on his cage floor. The owner, Mr Trevor Smith, said that the dead animal was in fact a `body double' and that the real Kevin was seen earlier in the ad exercising on his wheel.