Real-life Katamari in Travelers Insurance ad
A current Travelers Insurance TV commercial liberally borrows from Katamari Damacy, showing a ball of, well, stuff bouncing down San Francisco's hills. You could say Fallon, the ad agency behind the spot, ripped off Katamari, but we like the commercial enough to let that slide. We'll call it an homage, imitation being flattery and all.The commercial opens with a guy -- let's call him Everyman -- walking down the sidewalk. He's on a hill in the overcast outskirts of the city, maybe in the Avenues or closer to Twin Peaks. For no apparent reason, other than eventually trying to sell insurance, he trips, and begins rolling down the street. Like Katamari, he runs into some people and boxes, picking up size until the ball eventually gets big enough to gather cars and trees.
The ball bounces through the city -- always downhill except once on even ground -- through Pacific Heights and the Fillmore, gathering motorcycles in Nob Hill, picking up a heterosexual marriage -- we have those sometimes -- in Delores Park or a similar green space, flying down California Street or an equally car-chase-laden road, and eventually crashing into a columned downtown building with a name we can't quite remember. We wish we could ride a katamari across the city; it's a record commute time.
Is it a rip-off of Katamari, and do you care if your hobby becomes a commercial? Or did Fallon just have Katamari-of-the-mind? Immersive games have changed our way of looking at the world, like if we notice a drainpipe on the outside of a building and think of climbing it, Splinter Cell-style. Carmageddon also rewired our minds for a few weeks, urging us to crash the family truckster into a van. (We restrained). And Katamari has changed the way we think about space; we often imagine rolling up our surroundings. What, you don't?
The full commercial is embedded after the break.
See also: Roddick takes on Pong in ad
[Thanks, Daniel Premo]










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alex @ Sep 25th 2006 5:01PM
That commercial was really well done. It's amazing that we're seeing games as inspiration for commercials more and more nowadays (like that Pong tennis one).
wolfchanger89 @ Sep 25th 2006 5:15PM
Zomg new katamari for the PS3 in super hi def super realism!!!!!!!!!!!!111!
the Brayn @ Sep 25th 2006 5:17PM
I find it interesting that you are implying that Katamari was the first ever idea that something rolling will pick up mass. Old cartoons used to have their characters rolling down hills gaining mass (with things such as snow and what not). This is nothing new and certainly didn't start with Katamari. Heck, even as a kid playing in the snow whatever I rolled over when making a snowman tended to end up packed in with the snow. I don't know that you can attribute this commercial alone to Katamari.
PaleGringo @ Sep 25th 2006 5:24PM
Re: #3 Brayn
Probably because Katamari was about rolling OBJECTS into a larger ball, not just snow. Freaking wet blankets and know-it-alls, I tell ya.
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On a side note, would be a great clincher to add the King of all Cosmos vomitting a Royal Rainbow and having the Traveller's umbrella give shelter. :-D
FSK405K @ Sep 25th 2006 5:25PM
"Alone to Katamari?" No. Copied with Katamari style and charm, yes? Other sources easily namable: nothing specific, just memories of cartoons growing up. Why this ad is more Katamari than generic stuff ball is because you can see each thing individually, not like some mush sphere rolling as done in those cartoon memories.
All Your Lost Socks @ Sep 25th 2006 5:27PM
True enough, Brayn; see the snowman level in We Love Katamari for a reference. :) That was a brilliant commercial, though, all in all. A version of the game built like that would be so much fun. It seemed to shear a lot of debris as it rolled, though, which would make it very difficult to keep up mass depending on the surface you were rolling on...
...Yes, I probably think about rolling up my office environs more often than I should.
otakucode @ Sep 25th 2006 5:28PM
Brayn: It is not only the fact that rolling things picking up mass is in the commercial that would lead one to attribute it to Katamari Damacy. As you point out, the concept itself is simple and ever-present. Why, then, was this commercial made now? Why not 5 years ago? Or why not never? The fact that two well-selling games (despite the best efforts of Gamestop and EBgames to prevent its success) featuring this concept have come out in the recent past carries with it a relatively high impact on the public imagination in general.
While further research would be required to determine if the link is causal or coincidental in nature, the idea that it may be causal lies in the fact that the game was moderately successful, and in the fact that the idea itself is intrinsically understandable to the public at large. While gamers may look at it and say "neat! Just like Katamari Damacy!", the non-gamer will look at it and say "neat!".
The likelihood the marketers got the idea from Katamari Damacy I would say is quite good. Not as good as the marketers for Just Cause getting their inspiration from Che Guevera T-shirts, but still pretty likely.
Jose @ Sep 25th 2006 5:31PM
Sooo did Katamari Damacy come out before, or after the episode of the simpsons in which they found out they were the fattest city in the US?
Andrew Yoon @ Sep 25th 2006 5:38PM
Seeing that with real people and big budgets make the idea of a real-life katamari... absolutely terrifying!
otakucode @ Sep 25th 2006 5:56PM
Andrew Yoon: Don't worry, once Jack Thompson ends all violence between human beings by getting $600 million from Take Two and Sony into his pockets, he'll go after Katamari Damacy for making such a thing a near-inevitability.
Bones3D @ Sep 25th 2006 6:03PM
Freakin' awesome!
A katamari game with a real-world look to it such as this might be enough to make me buy a PS3. Especially if the worlds involved are huge. A realistic katamari starting from a diameter of under one inch growing to several hundred miles across could prove fun to play with, not to mention amusing to watch.
Vlad @ Sep 25th 2006 7:54PM
amazing effects in that commercial, but it shows why Katamari intentionally used those blocking, cartoony, non-realistic graphics...that was sort of freaky at times, with the people slamming into the ground and people getting run over. strangely Katamari-like music too, reminded me of "Beautiful Star" from the We Love Katamari OST.
Josh @ Sep 25th 2006 8:44PM
When I saw it on TV, I thought it was a Katamari commercial at first!
Alkaiser @ Sep 25th 2006 8:46PM
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/05/21/photos_of_katamari_d.html
Consdering that this isn't the only public display of the ol' katamari in San Francisco this year, I'm pretty sure that the game is the inspiration for the ad.
Cabcru @ Sep 25th 2006 9:56PM
It's easier to assume that all adverts have been ripped off of something or other and that you simply haven't seen the original yet. Ad execs are basically just pond scum.
idiot @ Sep 25th 2006 10:22PM
gah, i was gonna send this in to Joysteek but I couldn't remember the name of the company! There went my fifteen minutes of fame. Oh well, I'm glad it got on here.
Anonymous @ Sep 25th 2006 10:35PM
oh god. This reminds me of the aids awareness commericial.
Victr @ Sep 26th 2006 11:17AM
When I first saw this commercial, I was certain it was for a new Katamari game. But did I ever get a wierd suprise at the end (it's not that great of a tie-in).
Wheeliedude @ Sep 29th 2006 6:42AM
You would think the ball would be a bloody mass after a while...