Fantastic Scrabble commercials

The music, design, and wildness of this commercial for Scrabble are all first rate. So much fun! More here. (via Drawn!)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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Anonymous

It had boobies in it. Boobies make baby jesus cry.
Jake Bullet

Much better than the Argentinian bank commercial! :)
GregLondon

I… what just happened?

Cool song. Surreal commercial. I’m freaking out here a bit.
Anonymous

It’s a scam ad, produced with the intention of winning awards. Scrabble seems to be a popular client for this purpose. It probably screened once at 4am on a tuesday morning in order to qualify for competition.

Pretty fun though.
Anonymous

Am I the only one who thinks this looks like Gary Baseman’s work? He’s done other board games before – I wonder if he had anything to do with this?
Mark Frauenfelder

I would like to know the name of the band, too. I will immediately by their music.
Johnny Cat

So cool, and reminds me of a fun way to extend your gameplay. During the game, write down a list of the words used. Afterwards, each player writes a short story using those words throughout. Geeky fun!
latent_ravening_ferocity

“It’s got a freakin’ Golliwog in … since when is Scrabble racist?”

Uh, yeah, the official Scrabble dictionary allowed a number of racist terms until at least 1993:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v23/n20/jone01_.html

And, apparently, Nintendo DS Scrabble didn’t get the memo:

http://fragglet.livejournal.com/12800.html
seth matthew

I enjoy the music and animation, but the connection to the brand is too indirect. I’m sorry, but board games trade largely on familiarity. There are ways to appeal to the generation’s interest in Scrabble without a complete psychotic break.
joelfreeman

Found credits here:
http://motionographer.com/2009/04/24/scrabble-the-beautiful-word/

Ad agency: Ogilvy&Mather, Paris, France

Animated by: Wizz http://www.wizz.fr/
rogerg

working way to hard to be cool. looks like decades old Walt Disney animation. music is derivative, too.
Browncoat

somehow the music really reminded me of Izabo… (http://www.myspace.com/izaboband)
Anonymous

Reminds me of Slug Signorino’s illustrations.
GregLondon

Kind of reminds me of non-instrumental version of Hands Upon Black Earth”. Slightly. Just a little bit.
djmonstermo

Didier “C4″ Tovel site
His entry regarding Hula Dancer
teh MP3!!!11
If you can find the other tunes, please post the info here.
MarkM

Jesus CHRIST.
This isn’t a commercial: its a work of art.
No way it could have been produced
or shown (omg– breastses! hide the kids!) on US tv.
Anonymous

Why can’t our tv be this cool?
Anonymous

Still haven’t heard back from the agency, which means I probably won’t. Too bad, I’m sitting here still thinking about it almost two weeks later. :(
Ratdog

That was amazing. I wish more commercials were like this. Everything about it is amazing.
Sam

Someone on youtube claims that this song is called “king for a day” and is by a band called “yogaman.”

This information is next to useless because there is no information about them online.
Anonymous

It’s got a freakin’ Golliwog in … since when is Scrabble racist?
Anonymous

One obvious antecedent: Tom Tom Club, Wordy Rappinghood.
druranium

it reminds me of superjail a little, with less implosion of violence on the end and a scrabble box instead
wrybread

Holy crap that’s a great song. There’s a couple more vids from these guys on this page:

http://motionographer.com/2009/04/24/scrabble-the-beautiful-word/

The 3rd one is pretty good too.
Jason Olshefsky

I don’t know if I want to play Scrabble or have sex with it.
daverowley

The connection between the animation and the brand *are* a little subtle, until the end of course. My first reaction was “wow–those guys at Scrabble sure do smoke a lot of dope!” So I guess there is some brand awareness generated as a result. I’m guessing this is an internet-only campaign.
Takuan

Scrabble is as cool as your company. I recommend sultry young maidens, apple breasted on the shimmering sands and bearing salvers of coconut liquor as the warm ripples lap your toes… either that or Saturday winter nights at the CYO with a mickey of vodka and eager supplicants.
Takuan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERfW_TWoEkU&feature=related
Dewi Morgan

I remember busting into my dad-and-his-girlfriend’s bedroom one day, and finding them naked in bed together.

That was fine.

What blew my tiny little childmind was that they were playing scrabble.
Sam

I think the commercials are great and see the connection – it’s a bunch of random things growing out of each other, just like the game. Awesome.

Did anyone figure out the song to the Yoga one yet?
hohum

I love it… but how does that say ‘Scrabble?’ I see no connection between the product and the animation really… Which I expect with the ads for some products, but not so much with a board game.

Whatever, it’s a spectacular animation anyway..!
nanner

yeah, i agree. i would never remember what the ad was for but it was super cool lol
jimh

The connection is the random words that are generated by a game of scrabble and how they might interact. And I love it too!

It’s obvs for a European market, however. I doubt they could get away with the bare breasts, even the cartoon version.
Sam

I sent a note to the ad agency who did the ads to find out where the song is from.

The song on the Hulu ad was commissioned just for the ad and is by a band called C4. It’s possible the Yoga song is an original too.

Anyway, I’ll post here when and if they write back, if nobody else figures it out first.
Mark Frauenfelder

rogerg@20: It looks almost *nothing* like old Disney animation. If anything, it’s closer to Fleischer.

Do you care to support your claim that the “music is derivative?”
Anonymous

Anybody know who the animators were? I’d love to know.
ridl

There… may be hope for the future yet…

And I miss old ween too.
Anonymous

I immediately understood the connection between the game and the animation, but only because i was told it was a scrabble ad first. It was totally rockin though.
Anonymous

is that the brothers Ween singing?
sciencebzzt

That has to be gener singing. I sense a great disturbance in the boognish. The brothers Ween were involved here.
Manooshi

Cute animation. Hum… reminds me that I need to get back my Scrabble game.
joelfreeman

Awesome. Freeze at 0:55 in high quality and you can see all the words and how they link to both the animation and the custom (?) soundtrack that incidentally rocks in its own right. nice find!
Zac

I loved it, but I wish the words in the song were just a little more intelligible. Scrabble is a game about the words after all.

Also, if you wanted to tie in the product better, I would start it out with someone spelling the first word on a scrabble board, and zooming in to the nuttiness. That would be a really effective and cool commercial I think.

Oh, and LOL AWESUM!!!!!!!!111one1
Teller

JIMH: Exactly.
A lovely approach to Scrabble advertising. Really fresh idea.
bwana dork

The song sounds like old Ween.
Which reminds me: I miss old Ween.
sciencebzzt

If someone gave me 100 dollars, I’d bet 90 of it that the music is by Ween. They’ve done commercials in the past, like the “Where’d the Cheese Go?” song for the Pizza Hut commercial that never was used. It sounds exactly like them, and it’s right up their alley, something they’d do. My money is on Ween.

Post it when you find out, Sam.
yerbamatte

Wow! Great song! I want it! Anybody have any idea who sings it?
Razzle Bathbone

Fun commercial, but Upwords is a better game.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1515
ill lich

Somewhere between Gary Panter and early Disney (Steamboat Willie-era).