Nokia Says Nope, That Kitty Bashing Spot Ain't Ours

claymore's picture
Posted by claymore on 16. March 2003 - 22:47

Somebody else has pulled a puma (referring to the feline, not the recently and unfairly beleaguered sports brand) and released a pseudvert a la viral proliferation without the approval/consent of Nokia. First mentioned here on the 12th, the spot features a kitty cat that takes a ceiling fan for a spin in such a way guaranteed to make the malcontents at PETA fuma. Watch it here (2.3 meg avi) or at Bonga.org (0.5 meg mpeg).

Your rating: None Average: 3.7 (21 votes)
Submitted by dabitch on 20. March 2003 - 16:35.
dabitch's picture

wed. 19 marcg - source expressen

Michael Smirnoff, information at Nokia Scandinavia states(paraphrased by translation) : This is not an official movie. It goes against all ethical standards of Nokia advertising where films should be humoric and not tasteless.

Nokia are also looking for those who made the movie - "If we find them we will demand damages."

the funniest part about the expressen article is that they belive the cat is actually tortured. With that fantastically post-production ending don't you adgrunts think there is an edit from real-cat to cat-doll swinging from the fan as well?
Special effects people - calm down.

Submitted by anonymous on 27. March 2003 - 22:52.
anonymous's picture

It might not be Nokia's but it was funny as hell!!!

Submitted by dabitch on 29. March 2003 - 17:34.
dabitch's picture

agreed - i wonder though - how much post production can a fake ad afford? I second dab's comment then.

Submitted by dabitch on 2. April 2003 - 14:59.
dabitch's picture

Aaah, I get it now... see Nokia's Press Release:

The offending footage had been proposed to Nokia by an external party but we had categorically rejected it as it neither complies with the ethical standards of the company nor reflects the policies and principles of our advertising. While the external creators who have created the material have assured us that trick photography was used and no animal was harmed...

so, an agency made it - got i rejected - and then accidently made an .mpeg out of it that they could email all their friends. ;-) Hence the good post production and cat-trick-speacial-effects.

Submitted by anonymous on 16. April 2003 - 3:30.
anonymous's picture

I'd guess that the video was real- somebody was taping their cat swatting at the toy on the end of a fan blade, and captured something wholly expected when the cat was taken along for the ride. With that footage, the rest of it (the phone & hand in the foreground) would be easy to fake with bluescreen techniques.

Submitted by anonymous on 18. April 2003 - 0:13.
anonymous's picture

Clearly faked.

The cat is at least 5 pounds. The weight of the cat would unbalance the fan, making it wobble all over. In the video, there is zero wobble.

The fan would slow down given the additional load. The fan does not slow down.

Submitted by dabitch on 20. April 2003 - 18:21.
dabitch's picture

aaaah, the voice of sanity - who has learned about newtons law when he/she paid attention in school. ta. :)

yes it's a stunt-kitty/post job.

Submitted by dabitch on 21. April 2003 - 19:40.
dabitch's picture

those who belive this is real are morons. sorry.

Submitted by dabitch on 21. April 2003 - 19:54.
dabitch's picture

So this is the agencies reply to Nokias denial of the ad?

They create an mpeg - it creates a buzz on the web - it viral spreads all over - and the agency can now snickering go "see, told you it was funny!".

Apart from the fact that it is totally off-strategy that is - I can't belive the agency went that far in creating something that so obvuiously goes against nokias current strategy. My guess is, this ad is old.

Submitted by anonymous on 28. April 2003 - 17:41.
anonymous's picture

No the fan wasn't wabbling, but don't you think even a stuffed animal would cause the fan to wabble(fake cat's have weight too). Either it was a firmly installed fan(fake cat or not), or the swinging cat was put in digitally. Even if the video was real it was simply a joke gone wrong(and was funny as hell).

Submitted by jasper on 1. May 2003 - 10:18.
jasper's picture

Listen,

this spot is on the latest Shots-reel. The agency credited is Bates, Singapore, which is Nokia's agency of record for that region. Why don't somebody give them a call and get their side of the story? Could be fun to hear...

Jesper

Submitted by errol on 1. May 2003 - 19:52.
errol's picture

If everyone takes a look at the spot again and freezes the end card you'll see these tell-tale words...

www.nokia-asia.com

guess Jesper must be right.

Bates SG handles most of Nokia's regional work here in asia...

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
Yo, are you real or just a figment of spamination?

Adland.tv

Member login

Request new password