Travelers ad imitating Katamari: just coincidence
by Zack Stern 
{ Sep 28th 2006 at 8:15PM }
We got in touch with Todd Riddle, Group Creative Director at Fallon about the current Travelers commercial that bears a striking resemblance to Katamari Damacy. The spot (high-quality version) in question shows a mass enveloping people, trees, and cars, as it bounces through San Francisco. Riddle said that there's no Katamari relation, but the spot is connected to Peter Jackson's special effects house.Riddle has been in advertising for 20 years and has won of dozens of accolades including Cannes, Clio, and One Show awards. We asked him a few questions about games and the spot, titled "Snowball," via email.
What inspired the Travelers Snowball spot?
The creative team that created the ad decided to use the metaphor that life is dynamic and can sometimes snowball -- but if you have the proper insurance, you should be just fine. Often in advertising we'll present a detailed storyboard to a client. In this case, because the visual production would be so detailed, and we weren't exactly sure how we would be able to produce it -- so we presented a single "key frame" that was reminiscent of the old cartoons of characters rolling down a hill, snowballing with everything in their path, and told the client that if the bought the concept, we would find the best people in the world to execute it.
How did the production of the ad come together?
True to our promise, we found the best partners. We worked with Weta Digital Ltd., which is Peter Jackson's Academy Award-winning special effects company based in New Zealand, and a well known commercial director, Dante Ariola from MJZ (Los Angeles). The special effects were created by Weta, the same team that did King Kong (Universal Pictures) and the Lord of The Rings trilogy (New Line Cinema). For the in-camera scenes (meaning scenes that do not require computer graphics), we hired a five-person stunt crew and filmed them as they intertwined themselves intro a human ball and rolled themselves down the sidewalk in San Francisco, forming the base for the "snowball." It took over 12 weeks and 87 people to complete the computer graphics (CG) and post-production work.
Do you play games? Is the spot related to Katamari Damacy?
No. In fact it wasn't until recently that we had even heard of the game.
Have games inspired your other work?
Not personally yet, though I do think the gaming world is becoming much more mainstream as technology is more accessible, and I would imagine it will at some point. But I would add our interactive department created a website for Travelers -- which is part of this campaign called the "In-synch Challenge," which recently won the Most Influential Flash Site of The Year for 2006 at the Favourite Website Awards in conjunction with Adobe. It's worth checking out.
[See also: Real life Katamari in Travelers Insurance ad]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Robert @ Sep 28th 2006 8:20PM
Please... they totally got their inspiration from Katamari. Or at least the guy at the bottom of the totem pole who came up with the idea did, and nobody else picked up on it. Either way, Katamari was too big of a phenomenon to be missed by everyone involved.
Psaakyrn @ Sep 28th 2006 8:25PM
In their defence, other than the key concept of stuff gathering in a downhill ball roll (which was implemented previously in old cartoons as well) there's nothing it has similar to Katamari.
FSK405K @ Sep 28th 2006 8:26PM
Robert, nod.
rdj75 @ Sep 28th 2006 8:29PM
I thought it was one of the best commercials I have ever seen. Awesome special effects. While looking at it the first time last week on tv I thougt it was a katamari advertisement of some sort, but at the end when it was something totally different I was like WTF, just to much of a coincidence to not have some sort of influence from katamari.
Probot @ Sep 28th 2006 8:34PM
Wow, from reading the comments, you'd think Katamari Damacy was something more than just a cult hit.
qbix @ Sep 28th 2006 8:39PM
Snowball my ass! They can't possibly be oblivious to such a popular game as Katamari. Like Robert said, if they did in fact based their concept on the snowball effect, there's no way nobody on their entire team didn't make the connection between their project and the game. Surely these people have to watch TV in order to judge their competitor's work, so they must've at least heard of it. If you can't be original, at least be honest and give credit. Sheesh.
FSK405K @ Sep 28th 2006 8:42PM
Please someone add some flash content of the little bugger pushing the ball the whole time! And a graphic in the upper left indicating the size...? Youtube, baby!
Happy @ Sep 28th 2006 8:49PM
This may be a suprise to some of you: Some people haven't heard of Katamari Damacy. Some people haven't seen ads for the game. Some people aren't gamers.
Psaakyrn @ Sep 28th 2006 8:49PM
to #6 qbix
They did give credit, if you actually read. Quote: "we presented a single "key frame" that was reminiscent of the old cartoons of characters rolling down a hill, snowballing with everything in their path".
I'm quite sure Katamari gave credit to that very same idea as well, somewhere..
The ZeroCorpse @ Sep 28th 2006 9:09PM
If this is ripping off Katamari Damacy, then Katamari Damacy is ripping off old Warner Bros. and Hanna Barbera cartoons. By "old" I mean 1930s, 1940s, 1950s. . .
Katamari is not a unique, original concept. Get over it.
Fisher @ Sep 28th 2006 9:39PM
Dear Mr. TheZeroCorpse,
"Katamari is not a unique, original concept. Get over it."
Just wanted to point that out. I agree totally. I remember all those old Warner cartoons where a very tiny cosmic Prince would come to earth at the behest of his drunken father, the King of the Cosmos (complete with disco look at massive bulge) and then proceed to attach things to his katamari, building a huge ball of junk to reignite the stars.
Yes, I distinctly remember that cartoon. How dare Katamari be such a unoriginal and derivite concept!
ele©tro @ Sep 28th 2006 10:00PM
"No. In fact it wasn't until recently that we had even heard of the game."
I'm totally calling bullshit on this. If there's one thing overpaid egomaniacal ad agency people love (especially at an agency as big as Fallon), it's their pop culture "knowledge." There's no way in hell SOMEONE along the chain of command didn't know this was a total Katamari ripoff/homage/whatever. Just admit it, people!
Chris @ Sep 28th 2006 10:30PM
What else can the guy say?
"Yes, we got the idea when we saw an intern playing Katamari on her portable thingy. We sincerely hope Namco will be nice and all and not sue. Or say bad things about us. Thank you. xoxo"
Bones3D @ Sep 28th 2006 10:36PM
It seems extremely unlikely that no one on a team with the technical skills needed to create such an ad has never heard of a game that had mass media going for it even before it arrived in the U.S. Video games aren't exactly diversified from video/3D animation/special effects production, given that they fall under the common category of multmedia.
Every one of these guys except maybe the one or two people they were pitching the idea to is lying through their teeth to limit any sort of legal consequences. I'm even willing to bet they were coerced into deny any links to Katamari Damacy, by having their very employment threatened if they acknowledged it.
Yes, there are examples of such things (both snowballing and not) from previous sources, but the decision to use this particular effect was made solely to ride the coattails of a current fad. It's no different from things like the "lunchables" ads that use anime styled characters to hock their products.
Cynders @ Sep 28th 2006 10:53PM
Well, you don't openly admit to "taking inspiration" because that's a shoe in the door for "getting sued."
Probot @ Sep 28th 2006 11:15PM
Robert, FSK405K, rdj75, qbix, ele©tro, Bones3D,
Katamari Damacy is not that big of a success. It the darling of game media, but sales in North America weren't that spectacular. Sales were decent, but it's certainly not a mainstream phenomenon.
Mighty Healthy @ Sep 28th 2006 11:38PM
I liked the days when you could consider Mario a gaming god, creepily envisioning game aspects interspersed with daily thoughts and reactions with reality, yet still have the social grace to not make tinfoil-hat assumptions about those who do not share your perception of the impact of the game on the world.
If you really "loved Katamari", you'd show it enough respect to not sound like a raving fanboy making idle threats at commercials.
"Here we are in the 21st century, and I think we could be doing a lot more if we used our minds to move forward, rather than keep dwelling on who owns what."
- Keita Takahashi
Amen to that.
Seer S @ Sep 28th 2006 11:54PM
"5. Wow, from reading the comments, you'd think Katamari Damacy was something more than just a cult hit.
Posted at 8:33PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Probot "
QFT
Seer S @ Sep 28th 2006 11:56PM
"15. Well, you don't openly admit to "taking inspiration" because that's a shoe in the door for "getting sued."
Posted at 10:52PM on Sep 28th 2006 by Cynders "
No it's not. You can't copyright an idea, like something snowballing down a hill. Only the implementation of it.
(I think, at least)
Joe @ Sep 29th 2006 12:42AM
Hey, I used to work at Fallon up until a few months ago and I know people on the Traveler's account. In my time there I didn't meet one person (even the creative teams) who played any video games other than sports games. Even the interns hadn't heard of Guitar Hero, and believe me, I asked way too many people about it. Like some people here have said, I think we may have to realize that not everyone in the world has the same exposure to video games as we do. Katamari Damacy is not universally known!
Sean DL @ Sep 29th 2006 12:42AM
The Simpsons had a human ball in a episode a couple of years ago.....Sweets and Sour Marge.
Just a coincidence...
Bones3D @ Sep 29th 2006 2:16AM
"Katamari Damacy is not that big of a success. It the darling of game media, but sales in North America weren't that spectacular. Sales were decent, but it's certainly not a mainstream phenomenon."
It doesn't matter how successful the game was with the general public. We're talking about professionals specific to the same industry that game developers serve. (Multimedia and Entertainment)
If such people are ignorant to the trends present in their industry, how can they honestly market themselves as being "professionals"? You don't spend millions to create content without knowing if your target audience will be receptive to it.
Somehow, I doubt those likely to buy this company's insurance based on this ad alone are also the type that conveniently happen to be fans of all the pre-1950's cartoons that used this effect to the point of rendering it a cliché. Not even Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang, shows these cartoons anymore.
Bones3D @ Sep 29th 2006 2:26AM
Furthermore... if these people were so desperate to lie about their inspiration for this effect, they could have picked something a bit more believable... like the Pepsi "Breakdancing Human Mech" ad from a couple months ago.
Branewalker @ Sep 29th 2006 2:31AM
I'll allow that Fallon came up with the concept without the inspiration of Katamari Damacy, but, the look of the rolling-up of the ball is so reminiscient of what I have seen in the game (watch the way the first light pole gets nabbed off-center, and the car gets grabbed, which off-balances the Katamari, er, ball) that I could imagine some people in Weta taking a bit of inspiration from the game. Ultimately, who knows? Maybe the *idea* propagated faster than the game itself. I find that often people quote lines they don't know the origin of, or such as that. That's pop culture. Concepts are remembered independent of their origins.
Alternatively, we could just have a case of Newton and Leibniz...genius sometimes comes independently to two people at roughly the same point in human history. And believe me, a game about rolling stuff into a giant ball is some sort of peculiar, wondeful genius.
--Branewalker
Probot @ Sep 29th 2006 2:48AM
Bones3D,
"We're talking about professionals specific to the same industry that game developers serve."
Can you clarify how this American ad agency is the core audience of this Japanese game developer?
"If such people are ignorant to the trends present in their industry, how can they honestly market themselves as being 'professionals'?"
How exactly is this ad agency part of the game industry? And how do you consider one cult hit the basis for their professionalism?
"You don't spend millions to create content without knowing if your target audience will be receptive to it."
There is nothing wrong with the ad agency not knowing about Katamari Damacy. That game does not affect their core audience in any significant way.
"Somehow, I doubt those likely to buy this company's insurance based on this ad alone are also the type that conveniently happen to be fans of all the pre-1950's cartoons that used this effect to the point of rendering it a cliché. Not even Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang, shows these cartoons anymore."
The snowball effect is not based on those cartoons. Surprisingly, it's actually based on snowballs. See, when a small ball of snow gets rolling down a hill, it actually sticks to loose snow on the ground, and that makes the ball get bigger. This "snowball effect" is how snowmen are made. For more clarification, find the nearest 5 year old and they'll explain it to you.
That is the basis for the ad. The guy interviewed mentioned the cartoons because it's an example of where one might find the "snowball effect," in addiction, of course, to actual snowballs.
I'm pretty confident that you're joking about all this, but I'm bored and I like being right, so it doesn't bother me at all.
CW @ Sep 29th 2006 3:19AM
Gamers need to realise that the gaming subculture isn't as mainstream as they'd like to think. Lumping advertising into the same industry as videogames is a sign of that ignorance.
Bones3D @ Sep 29th 2006 3:38AM
Look, I'm an animator, so I'm speaking from experience here. It would be foolish If I was to suddenly put forth valuable time and resources into creating new content without researching what's going on within the rest of the industry I operate in. Therefore, I keep constant tabs on every major animation company and the various clients they serve. This not only keeps me aware of popular industry trends, but also protects me from potential infringing upon the ideas of others while taking advantage of those trends.
If I'm intelligent enough to do this type of work ahead of time, then it only seems obvious that an advertising agency with the kind of resources needed to create an ad of this quality would be as well.
But, oh well... I guess any unethical action can be justified by simply claiming that you aren't lying if your statement can't necessarily be proven wrong.
Probot @ Sep 29th 2006 4:09AM
"If I'm intelligent enough to do this type of work ahead of time, then it only seems obvious that an advertising agency with the kind of resources needed to create an ad of this quality would be as well."
That would be relevant if we were talking about two animation studios. Yes, there is animation in video games, but not every animator works with video games.
Why would an ad agency know about every single small hit in every industry tangentially related to it? Like I said, Katamari Damacy is not a mainstream success and it's not an industry trend. It was a quirky game that got a lot of exposure in the gaming press because it was cute and simple.
I still have no idea why you would expect an ad agency to pay attention to every minor story in the video game press. I understand that's your personal choice, but there is no solid professional reason to do so.
There is almost nothing in the ad that is related to Katamari Damacy. It just happens to build upon the same idea, the snowball thing. It's such a common sense idea. I wouldn't have thought anything of the ad if it hadn't been brought to my attention this way.
Like someone mentioned earlier, the Simpsons did the same thing a few years ago. Are you saying Namco ripped off the Simpsons because that episode is slightly related to Katamari Damacy and a lot of video game designers watch cartooons?
I take it you really have never seen a snowball roll down a hill and get larger. It is a simple concept that anyone can easily understand and it didn't require a video game for conception.
"But, oh well... I guess any unethical action can be justified by simply claiming that you aren't lying if your statement can't necessarily be proven wrong."
Actually, that's the basis for every ethical justice system in the world. If you can't prove something, it isn't true. If you can't be proven guilty, then you're innocent.
Bones3D @ Sep 29th 2006 4:31AM
Oh, by the way... would those of you taking the ad agency's claims regarding Katamari Damacy at face value also believe it if Capcom started claiming they had never heard of "Dawn of the Dead" until after their Dead Rising game was on store shelves?
After all, Dawn of the Dead is a mere cult movie, so it should be shrouded in obscurity by at least as much as Katamari Damacy was to this ad agency.
Or how about the Carmageddon series of games released by SCI? Would you buy into any claims that it wasn't somehow inspired by the movie "Death Race 2000"?
Idea snatching of this magnitude is far from uncommon in our world. Especially in the field of entertainment. Taking this ad agency's claims as is, is simply foolish.
Probot @ Sep 29th 2006 4:56AM
First of all, both Death Race 2000 and Dawn of the Dead have been around a lot longer than Katamari Damacy. That matters for cult favorites.
Secondly, and most importantly, Capcom's game has very specific things in common with zombie movies. Like I said, the ad has nothing in common with the game besides the giant snowball. And again, snowballs were not invented by Katamari Damacy or anyone else at Namco.
That McDonald's ad from a few days ago is what you can call idea theft. There are arguments both for and against that theory, but both sides can easily see the videos are related.
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/09/mcdonalds-rips-off-gordon-college-mario-show/
That's not the case for Katamari and this ad. A ball rolling down a hill is not the same as an alien rolling a ball to create a star.
Bones3D @ Sep 29th 2006 5:40AM
Fine... you're "right".
There's no point in arguing over semantics against a borderline sociopath.
himura @ Sep 30th 2006 7:37AM
this is funny, bones just give up dude, it really doesnt matter, no one really cares if they stole the idea or not, and probots reasoning that they can never be proven in stealing it (if they did) is certainly a good one.fact of the matter is people are inspired all the time consiouscly or subconsiouscly.being inspired from a game,an old HB/WB cartoon,a kid rolling a snowball it doesnt really matter does it? as long as its not copying, and i mean that literally, like if the ad had a small-like alien prince pushing a ball of junk in a cartoon like world with a timer and counter on the screen running at 30fps with happy jap music, then that can be regarded as "copying" in fact i dont even reckon the mc's ad was copying either, "inspired" yes...then we can get into an argument over everything! streets of rage copied final fight, sonic copied mario,KOF copied SF...it just gets ridiculous...drop it man.
Psaakyrn @ Sep 29th 2006 7:08AM
If it matters, I have never heard of Dawn of the Dead until Dead Rising came out. It's not my fault that being an internet and game addict that I don't watch movies, is it?
Same thing goes for multimedia: Maybe they watch movies and cartoons, but interactive entertainment never caught their interest. (and anyone, even you, would know the difference between interactive and non-interactive entertainment. Even Thompson would.)
Psaakyrn @ Sep 29th 2006 7:14AM
For that matter, I view "Dead Rising" as more influenced by "Shadow of the Collosus" instead of zombie movies. While "Shadow of the Collosus" focuses on giant boss battles, "Dead Rising" focuses on zombie genocide. A micro focus compared to a macro focus. Themes stem from generic zombie/survival games, Thriller music video, and "old horror films". (the only old horror film I know is Frankenstein. Emphasis on "old" aka black-and-white era, since newer horror films would inherently be based on old ones.)
Likeitsnothappenedbefore @ Sep 29th 2006 9:39AM
Advertising Company steals Idea from legitmate Art. Grass is Green and the Sky is Blue also
jonah @ Sep 29th 2006 12:13PM
wow, all you Katamari fanboys are missing a glaring detail: no one is pushing a ball around in this spot. and I don't seem to recall any point in Katamari where you take one object and push it down a hill and just watch it collect stuff.
the ignorance in these comments is hilarious tho. thanks for the entertainent this morning!
Robert @ Sep 29th 2006 12:40PM
Wow is right. A few points:
Yes, idea theft happens all the time in advertising and it's entirely legal (whoever said you can't copyright ideas was right), but not owning up to it makes you look stupid. But then again, they're paid a lot of money by their client to come up with original ideas, so if they said "yeah, we got the idea from some video game" the client might not feel too great paying for it. Or paying for other "ideas" in the future.
And yes, they MAY have come up with this all on their own, but I highly doubt it. It may even have been unintentional, but chances are extremely high that someone saw Katamari gameplay at some point and took it from there.
But there really is no way to prove it for either side...
Probot @ Sep 29th 2006 12:59PM
I win!
"There's no point in arguing over semantics against a borderline sociopath."
I guess I'm a sociopath because I like to see facts and proof before I consider something idea theft. I guess a normal person would prefer if people were charged with crimes even if no proof were ever found.
Robert Jung @ Sep 29th 2006 1:04PM
Dunno about you guys, but watching the discussion between the Katamari fanbois and the "not everyone knows about Katamari" skeptics reminded me of what Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime said at E3: "Do you know someone, maybe even in your own family, who's never played a video game? I bet you do. How can this be? If we want to consider ourselves a true mass medium, if we want to grow as an industry, this has to change."
Despite the insistence of the fanbois, most non-hardcore-gamer folks really DON'T know about Katamari -- and that's not going to change until the industry grows out of its hardcore niche.
--R.J.
Probot @ Sep 29th 2006 1:21PM
"chances are extremely high that someone saw Katamari gameplay at some point and took it from there."(Robert)
No, no, no. Chances are incredibly small that they've seen any footage of the game. It's possible that some of the dozens of people working on the ad heard of the game, but there's nothing in the ad that can lead you to believe that it was inspired by the game. Only a couple people needed to create the idea and storyboard it and nothing in the ad shows *they* knew of Katamari Damacy.
And even if they had heard of the game, it would have been dumb to reference it. The game is not mainstream. The mainstream audience is the target of this ad. Remember that American Express ad with Pong playing tennis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMQmzbrteL0
That ad makes sense because *everyone* has heard of Pong. Katamari is not recognizable enough to be the basis of a commercial.
A big difference between Dawn of the Dead inspiring
Dead Rising and this, is that both zombie film and game were targeting the same people. If someone liked Death Race 2000, there's a good chance they'd like Carmagedeon.
That doesn't hold up in this case. This ad is not targeting just those that are into quirky Japanese games.
And again, the snowball effect, which is the only basis for this ad, is independant of Katamari Damacy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_effect
Here's it used as a cliche in a cartoon:
http://dailyepisodes.com/index.php?id=8&season=13&series=1
Grindstone @ Sep 29th 2006 2:15PM
Honestly, the only time I hear about this Katamari Damacy or whatever, is when I visit Joystiq. You guys esteem this game way beyond it's actual influence. And the snowball effect has been around much longer than a niche market console game.
Robert @ Sep 29th 2006 2:33PM
"And even if they had heard of the game, it would have been dumb to reference it." (Probot)
I never said they were referencing the game. That definitely would be stupid for a mainstream audience. But the effect they went for works for a mainstream audience pretty damn well. I mean, it looks awesome. But that has nothing to do with where they got the inspiration from. The Pong ad is a completely different situation. Instead of taking inspiration from Pong, they just took Pong.
You'll also note that I never said Katamari was mainstream. What I said was that chances were high that SOMEONE saw the gameplay at SOME point and that's where the idea came from. If the game was mainstream almost EVERYONE would have seen the gameplay.
And the statement "there's nothing in the ad that can lead you to believe that it was inspired by the game," is obviously wrong. Just look at the preceding post and the comments following it. There's obviously something there that would lead some of us to think that.
Probot @ Sep 29th 2006 3:38PM
Here's what would lead you to think that:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/25/real-life-katamari-in-travelers-insurance-ad/
There are similarities; they both contain a rollig ball of stuff. But there is nothing to show that the add ripped off Katamari Damacy.
Please explain what exactly is ripped off from Katamari Damacy. The ball doesn't start the same way as it does in the game. The setting, which is the biggest reason why people like the game, isn't completely different.
The ball is perpetuated by rolling downhill, which is not the way Katamari has it rolling. The end result of the ball is completely different.
It's a ball of stuff that gets bigger as it goes downhill like every other snowball cliche.
CW @ Sep 29th 2006 11:40PM
I think there is some confusion over how ad agencies make their ads. People here seem to think it's done in-house by animators. It isn't the case. The art director and copywriter conceptualise the idea on storyboards, then find a production house to produce the spot.
So while you might think that you guys (animators, etc) are in the same line, they are actually very different industries.
Andrew R @ Oct 4th 2006 11:09AM
At the end of the commercial did any one see when the ball was falling down after it hit the wall the Prince falling too. It is just to the left of the center screen. It looks to be the prince's head and feet. Then at the end before the truck drives away right infront of the hood looks to be the Prince's green head. Just what it looked to me. I DVR'ed it and watched it again and I saw it in there.
Jugular @ Oct 2nd 2006 1:19AM
art imitates life and so on. I for one
dave @ Oct 6th 2006 2:31PM
I was one of the previsualization artists for this commercial, so I was involved pretty early on, working with the storyboard artist. At one point I had mentioned that this was a lot like Katamari, and no one had heard of it. It is honestly coincidence, and as far as production was concerned , more influenced by classic cartoons than the Katamari videogame.
Eric @ Nov 17th 2006 8:08PM
I'm the guy on the bike at the end of the commercial and a fairly avid gamer. I personally had never heard of Katamari until the comparisons were made, but have watched a decent amount of cartoons and saw the similar effect.