Aleksandr Orlov is a Russian meerkat who has appeared in adverts for the insurance company, ComparetheMarket.com, since 5 January 2009.
He is voiced by Simon Greenall, who also plays Barnacles in Octonauts.
Aleksandr lives in a mansion in the Russian village of Meerkovo with his sidekick Sergei, a retired IT elderly meerkat who calls him "Mr. Aleksandr.". On 25 December 2013, Aleksandr and Sergei found a baby meerkat named Oleg on their doorstep and adopted him. However, a year later on 25 December 2014 whilst on a trip to Africa, Oleg leaves Aleksandr and Sergei's care to live with the meerkats living there.
In 2012, Compare The Market sponsored Coronation Street Right up until 2020 when they Made a Production about 'Compare the Market Has Been Proud to Sponsor Coronation Street' However, Argos Subsequently took it over
In July 2019, in an advert for ComparetheMarket.com's Meerkat Meals deal, Aleksandr and Sergei were reunited with Oleg after the latter and his friend Ayana left Africa due to their homes getting destroyed and joined them in San Francisco.
In May 2021, to promote Compare the Market's neighbourhood bills calculator, Aleksandr got a neighbour; a French meerkat named Antoine D'Orleau, who does everything better than Aleksandr. Though, Aleksandr has the advantage of having cheaper bills than Antoine.
In December 2022, another showed Aleksandr and Sergei waiting in an airport for the arrival of Aleksandr’s Australian nephew Carl. Soon after, Carl arrives and, much to Sergei's surprise, is revealed to be a wombat. Carl then reveals that he had brought Aleksandr a frog from Australia and it is given to Sergei. However, police at the airport see Sergei holding the frog and believe that he was the one who smuggled it from Australia and arrest him.
In April 2023, 2 new adverts were released, We see Sergei & Carl playing a zombie game on VR & Carl pushed Sergei, Carl watches the washing machine getting finished, His clothes are dried & Aleksandr’s housecoat was small.
In March 2023, radio adverts were released with Carl with Aleksandr. Carl called Sergei “Surge”, much to Sergei's annoyance. In the Lullaby radio ad, we hear Aleksandr saying goodnight to Carl while Sergei was sleeping. Carl wakes up Sergei to sing him with a lullaby. He was singing Sergei Sergei You’re my friend instead of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. In another radio advert, using Aleksandr's phone, Carl calls Sergai (who is out shopping) to get sticky tape as he had used all of it in an attempt to put his TV on a wall. He also asks Sergai to get a new TV as the previous one did not stick to the wall. And an another radio ad shows Sergei and Carl going camping, with has his stuff to get ready to camp, and the rain was started and the wolves and howling, and at the end, much to Sergei’s annoyance, he cried.
In May 2023, another TV advert featured Carl making soup for Aleksandr and Sergei as thanks for letting him stay with them. As Sergai eats the soup, Aleksandr asks Carl what is in it. Carl tells Aleksandr what the soup contains with one of the ingredients being a pint of chilli powder. The amount of chilli powder in the soup causes Sergai to collapse, much to Aleksandr and Carl's shock. As Sergai is taken away in an ambulance whilst being fed milk through a drip, Carl reads his recipe book and realises that he was only supposed to put a pinch of chilli powder into the soup not a pint.
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