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Crazy Frog?! CRAZY F*CKING FROG!?!?!?

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16:18 / 27.05.05

This is what they're all talking about, for anyone else who'd never heard it.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

17:27 / 27.05.05

Umm... has it occurred to anyone to, not necessarily not watch TV, but just not have the sound on during the ad breaks? I mean, either's cool... it's not like they're breaking into your house and forcing you to hear the "NININININING" or anything, is it?
Unless they actually are, in which case you have my sympathy.

Seriously, I've heard this thing on one fucking day. EVER. It really doesn't bother me. It DID for that day, but, y'know, you move on...

(Having said that, the only reason I changed my phone from Virgin was because I couldn't stand the voice of the guy that said "It'll only take a moment... thank you. You're all topped up now". Fucker. I'd've made him die slow.)

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

10:52 / 28.05.05

it's not like they're breaking into your house and forcing you to hear the "NININININING" or anything, is it?
Unless they actually are, in which case you have my sympathy.

This might be true of TV, but when you're listening to music on the computer, decide to open up your hotmail account and are assaulted by the sound at top volume from a flash ad, then it begins to edge into get the fuck out of my house territory. It's made me install flashblocker, which is a good things, but still. *shudders*

Brigade du jour

12:29 / 28.05.05

Suddenly I'm very grateful to my mate who set up my computer for me (for the very reasonable price of a lifetime's friendship and entertainment, and a fourteenth lunch that month at the Golden Fleece). He must have put in this 'flashblocker' of which Withiel speaks, because I've hardly come across this frog thing either.

Oh, and may I second Stoatie's 'sound off during the ads' approach? Partly because it will help protect us all from the frog, but mostly because ads in general make me want to slay everyone. Even the younglings.

14:47 / 28.05.05

Post Crazy Frog, especially the younglings.

15:55 / 28.05.05

See, my flatmate has this thing where she leaves the TV on in the kitchen because that's where the Sky box is and it feeds through to the TV in her room. And she leaves the TV on in her room when she goes for a nap. So I can't really take the mute option. I unwisely mentioned Big Brother to her and now she's leaving the thing on E4 all the time - Crazy Frog, or rather Crazy Frog/Axel F, appears at least once an ad break, often more frequently. It's only a small place I'm in, and normally I'm not sensitive to noise, but....

Anyway, isn't "just mute it" blaming the victim?

alejandrodelloco

16:10 / 28.05.05

Okay, I remember this from when it was "the insanity test", which was just a picture of a racecar and that noise. That was actually pretty funny. This is... errr... frightening. I must say that the fact that there is now a corporate mascot with genitals now comforts me.

Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER

16:14 / 28.05.05

But surely they are Genitals of Wrong?

Frogs don't have genitals like that, do they? I'm convinced* that it's not in fact a frog at all, but rather the victim of some terrible medical experiment involving the gene-splicing of Stirling Moss and Gollum

*read: "I would prefer to think"

16:46 / 28.05.05

Children are disgusting.

The Omen was really a documentary. Dial 666 for the Crazy Frog.

The sound is bad enough but the word crazy compounds the offence. That is a foul word, denoting middle class complacency and the Daily Mail version of Alternative. Rrrrrrg. Fite, squash that FROG!

16:51 / 28.05.05

Erm, Alejandorodelloco, I almost hate to ask this, but what inspired this decision to stop wearing pants ?

It wasn't the frog, was it ?

17:22 / 28.05.05

Alejandrodelloco is a yank and therefore when he says sans pants he presumably means without trousers. Now that's an appealing thought but not necessarily a political position nor a fashion choice. Perhaps he's just a shameless exhibitionist. With gilded loins and faun-like lower limbs.

alejandrodelloco

18:29 / 28.05.05

It's really my hatred of biurficated garmentry. The Scots got it right, really.

I have had limited exposure to the frog, see. We yanks only see him with his parts fig-leafed out, and that causes me to giggle to no end. I still go with the theory that he is a Deep One, nonetheless.

18:34 / 28.05.05

No, he is evil but not at all deep. With one stamp of an aggrieved foot I could squash him, if I knew where the little amphibian fucker lived.

alejandrodelloco

19:02 / 28.05.05

I'm talking Lovecraft, bud...

Something like this critter:

20:11 / 28.05.05

Suddenly Romero leaped from his bunk, pausing before me to gaze at the strange ring on my hand, which glistened queerly in every flash of lightning, and then staring intently in the direction of the mine shaft. I also rose, and both of us stood motionless for a time, straining our ears as the uncanny rhythm seemed more and more to take on a vital quality. Then without apparent volition we began to move toward the door, whose rattling in the gale held a comforting suggestion of earthly reality. The chanting in the depths - for such the sound now seemed to be - grew in volume and distinctness...

DA DING DING DING DING

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

07:46 / 31.05.05

I was just thinking that this post from Uncle Alex could have gone slightly differently:

"In the Ibiza of the future, everyone sitting about by the palatial swimming pool where the tourists aren't invited, the conversation would go something like;

'15 keys with a bill of lading, it was sweet as... ( laugh like a leathery, sunburned fax machine, ) So what were you into, Mr B ?

'I marketed frog cock to children.'

'Fucking hell...'

I also think that we should have a Barbelith field trip to investigate grog genitalia to ensure that they are being properly represented by Crazy Frog. There's nothing funny about mis-represented amphibian genitalia.

See, it's all about the frog cock.

And Alejandrodelloco where can I get a Deep One like that?

Tryphena Absent

14:48 / 31.05.05

Back to basics: I was muting the TV but now that I've seen the ad over a hundred times it's become my favourite. Everytime it comes on I dance. I also dance to Nessie the Dragon but I mute Lonely.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

15:14 / 31.05.05

I'd just like to mention that we don't have the Crazy Frog thing here. To me, that noise is just the racing-car insanity test noise. Haven't heard it in over a year.

Weather's nice, too.

Regrettable Juvenilia

15:39 / 31.05.05

I thought I hated Crazy Frog, but recently I had a profound experience of spiritual transcendence that taught me other wise. As the tears rolled down my cheeks and I rocked back and forth on my arse with my arms clasped tight around my knees, I realised: I love Crazy Frog.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

15:48 / 31.05.05

I love Crazy Frog too. It's funny.

What's hilarious is that Versign have spent no less than £7,000,000 for ONE MONTHS advertising of the single.

Count those zero's. It's unprecendented, and based of course on the fact that they don;t give a flying fuck about selling records at all. So far it's done about 150,000, so as you can see the sums don't really add up. Not as a piece of music business anyway, though as an invitation to Jamster and the downloads / ringtones market it'll probably work wonders.

Still, 7 million quid for a months worth of advertising. No wonder it's on every ad break, twice.

DING DING!

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

15:50 / 31.05.05

And Nina, get thee to an asylum.

Frog=Fun. Cer-razy, even.

Nessie=Nasty.

Nasty, nasty, nasty.

17:20 / 31.05.05

Is there some kind of unspoken ban surrounding this thing? The single got to number one, out-selling Coldplay by 4-to-1 (so I'm told) but I haven't actually heard the single played on TV or radio.

Maybe I've just been lucky...

17:24 / 31.05.05

Not as a piece of music business anyway, though as an invitation to Jamster and the downloads / ringtones market it'll probably work wonders.

That's a good point. If they're willing to shell out £7 million to advertise, just how much do they reckon they'll make because of it? A lot of people get suckered into siging up for ringtone services without realising it (and not just idiots- a guy I know ran up a bill of over £100 before he caught on). Jamster must be raking it in.

If any good comes from this horror, let it be stricter rules for advantage-taking ringtone companies.

19:45 / 31.05.05

The nightmare, plastic column of fetid, black iridescence oozed tightly onward... A shapeless congerie of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter. Still came that eldritch mocking cry -- DING DING-DING DING DING, DING DING-DING DING DING

20:55 / 31.05.05

That whole crazy Frog thing is nothing compared to (fighting epileptic fit) Schnappi das kleine Krokodil, a big hit in Germany a couple of months ago. Without any doubt most annoying tune ever! You don't want to make the mistake to google that, trust me...

Even more irritating than Drop the Pressure by fuckin' Mylo or that bleedin' pornographic clip Call on Me by Eric Spritz (or something like that)

21:12 / 31.05.05

Yeah but I'll bet none of those were on TV twice per ad break, every ad break for a month!

07:20 / 01.06.05

ASA complaints form here. Send in a full complaint and we'll see what happens to the little fucker.

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:32 / 01.06.05

A lot of people get suckered into siging up for ringtone services without realising it (and not just idiots- a guy I know ran up a bill of over £100 before he caught on).

Hang on - they don't realise that they are being charged for a service? Or is there some sort of nasty subscription model that pops up in the very small print?

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:37 / 01.06.05

Er, Triplets...

In February 2005, a number of complaints were submitted to the United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority regarding Jamba!'s advertising campaign, complaining that Crazy Frog appeared to have genitalia. Some parents complained that this made inappropriate viewing for children, claiming that the commercial had prompted embarrassing questions. Complaints were also submitted about the frequency the advert appeared on television, up to twice an hour across most of the day (source (http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment.cfm?id=551242005)).

The ASA did not uphold the complaints, pointing out that the advert was already classified as inappropriate for airing during childrens' television programmes as it contained a premium rate telephone number, adding that it was for the broadcaster to decide how often an advert should be shown. However, Jamba! voluntarily censored the characters genital area in later broadcasts of its advertisements. The full adjudication (PDF) (link) is available online.

In April 2005, television viewers complained about misleading adverts produced by Jamba!, trading as Jamster! and RingtoneKing. Viewers were concerned that it was not made sufficiently clear that they were subscribing to a service, rather than paying a one-time fee for their ringtone. The complaints were upheld, the full adjudication (PDF) (
link) is available online.

In May 2005, the ASA were inundated with new complaints by viewers regarding the continuous airing of the latest Crazy Frog advertisements. As the authority had already adjudicated on the matter and confirmed the matter was not within its remit, the unusual step was taken of adding a notice to their online and telephone complaints system informing viewers that Jamster!-related complaints should be directed towards the broadcaster or the regulator, Ofcom.

Source.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

08:01 / 01.06.05

Hang on - they don't realise that they are being charged for a service? Or is there some sort of nasty subscription model that pops up in the very small print?

There is, unfortunately...its a recurring monthly/weekly charge unless you cancel in writing, the classic model...many people don't realise, believing it to be a one off payment for a single service....

autopilot disengaged

09:07 / 01.06.05

i *used* to like Crazy Frog, but the new advert's not as good as the last...

The resistable rise of Reidcourchie

12:09 / 01.06.05

Personally I think he's sold out.

15:46 / 01.06.05

We are all unregenerate old fogeys, according to Sarfraz Manzoor's article in today's Guardian.

17:55 / 01.06.05

Yeah, I think when he allowed his genitals to be screened out by The Man it was all over for the Frog, or whatever the hell it's supposed to be, as a subversive force.

08:09 / 02.06.05

Don't worry. Be happy.

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