After our stokage, then disappointment, over the latest Bravia ad — snippets of which look suspiciously like this Kozyndan panoramic (sent to Passion about two years ago) — Sony gave us the following statement.
“There is suggestion that there is a similarity between an illustration by Kozyndan and the new Sony BRAVIA ‘Play-Doh’ advert. Sony would like to stress that the advert conception, creative and final animation is not based on any pre-existing artwork.
“Sony Europe, its agency Fallon, production company Gorgeous, and animation company Passion Pictures, assert that the wave, whale and bunnies were arrived at without reference to these artists. In the original script, the rabbits were one of many creatures to cavort around a cityscape. In fact, the location was only finalised shortly before the shoot. The final creative, led by Juan Cabral at Fallon and director Frank Budgen at Gorgeous, was chosen to champion the brand and best reflect ‘colour.like.no.other’. Sony enjoys working with experienced and talented creatives and all involvement in a campaign is always credited.”
We grant it that nothing is original and this kind of thing is going to happen every once in awhile, but come on. Seriously. Compare the image above — which is part of the Kozyndan pano — to this bit from the Bravia ad.
Dude. They used the same color and shade palette for the bunnies. Are you going to tell us that the Kozyndan team and Passion/Fallon fell asleep and had the same fucking dream? We just … can’t … swallow … it.
We love the ad. Nobody’s saying the ad sucks. We’re just declaring shenanigans, that’s all.