Sony's clearly been Tango'd

You know that commercial... the one that starts with aerial views of a city; gently-edited shots of streets and street corners... beautifully scene-setting music (Heartbeats, performed by José González from his album, Veneer)... then you see the coloured balls starting to bounce down the street...

And then you suddenly realise that they're not balls at all: they're fruit. It isn't San Francisco either - it's Cambridge Street in Swansea. And it's not that ad with 250,000 superballs bouncing through San Fran, advertising Sony's Bravia colour TVs.

The fruit avalanche impacts everything in its path. A supermarket trolley full of fruit is knocked over. A mass of red apples is seen rolling down a flight of steps. A melon crashes through a window, followed by a handful of oranges. Window-boxes fall to the ground. A bicycle is knocked over and a melon splatters on a car windscreen. A frog pops out of a drainpipe and is nearly squashed by marauding fruit. And the brightly-coloured avalanche ends up in a pile at the bottom of the hill.

A young woman emerges from the fruit melange holding a soft-drink bottle. "Refreshment" (rather than "Colour") "like no other" says the caption. "It's clear when you've been Tango'd." And when Sony has, too.

I had to look up who the original balls belonged to (and I always regard it as a bad sign when a commercial was so clever that you can't remember what the product was - this is a fundamental, albeit Clio-winning, problem if you're trying to sell something), but there'll be no forgetting this ingenious, beautifully-rendered parody. Congratulations to Director Jim Gilchrist and production company Thomas Thomas Films.

There is an apparent darker side to the story. A web site claiming to represent "Swansea North Residents' Association" says they didn't think it was so funny.

"On the 17th of February 2006 it rained fruit in Swansea North, causing much damage to property (for which we have received no compensation)," says the web site. "The filming of this TV advert traumatized many small, domestic animals and a number of our older residents are now too afraid to leave their homes. With enough complaints, hopefully those responsible will think twice before soiling the streets of Britain with fruit pulp again."

"...The 'Tango' drinks brand did nothing to clear up the slippery mush they left behind (which contravened several health and safety laws)", the site continues. A news report, however, notes that the fruit was collected up afterwards and given to feed to farm animals.

There is also a somewhat unlikely-sounding article on the Swansea Press Association's web site that claims a pet frog (allegedly the one shown in the commercial) was traumatised by the event. Unlikely because the original Bravia spot shows a frog behaving in a similar fashion.

Fact is, the "resident's association" site is a spoof: it's owned by CHI (Clemmow Hornby Inge), the inspired agency that made the commercial. A nice bit of viral marketing.

Here are some interesting shots from the making of the original Bravia spot; while here are a few shots of the Swansea filming.