In one of the ads, a chimp is shown wearing a pink, square-faced Dolce & Gabbana watch and looking unhappy, according to wildlife conservation group Animal Defenders International.
The press campaign features a variety of close-up views of chimps holding watches, most versions with the chimp grinning broadly, however others that were released show the ape looking sad.
The protest follows much controversy surrounding the use of chimpanzees in advertising campaigns, most recently with complaints over Pepsi Max's "monkey taxi" ad, made by French agency CLM BBDO.
German sportswear brand Puma was forced last year to pull a TV commercial off the air after filming a young chimpanzee dressed in a nappy.
An ad for the Portman Group, created by M&C Saatchi, was also condemned by the advertising watchdog as totally unacceptable by Animal Defenders International for using performing chimps to tell young people not to be "drunken monkeys". It was pulled before it was even broadcast.
In 2003, an ad created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO for Halfords was taken off the air after a CAPS campaign and 126 complaints from viewers and protests at Halfords stores around the country.
In March 2004, Seiko landed itself in trouble with the Advertising Standards Authority over an ad for its Breil watch featuring a young woman holding a handgun after members of the public complained that the press campaign glamourised guns.
Eva Mendes, star of the romantic comedy 'Hitch', was recently signed up to front Dolce & Gabbana's latest ad campaign to promote its clothing range.
The most famous brand to use chimps PG Tips, which first used them for more than 40 years in a campaign first developed by Davidson Pearce Berry & Spottiswoode and continued by BMP DDB.
Even though animal critics condemned the ads, the campaign proved a hit with viewers until the brand decided to move use animated birds in 2002 with the slogan "We all need a PG moment".
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