In case you didn’t know, Sony (SNE) BRAVIA is a collection of high-definition visual and audio devices. They include LCD and front & rear projection televisions. In fact, BRAVIA stands for Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture.
Didn’t know that, did you? Me neither. I thought it was a bunch of colorful balls, paint, or bunny rabbits.
Play-Doh
Just this past Thursday, Sony unveiled its latest BRAVIA TV ad, featuring 200 colorful Play-doh bunnies hopping around Thomas Paine Park in Lower Manhattan.
I would have loved to have been there while they were filming this. According to the article “Sony goes from balls to bunnies” from MediaGuardian.co.uk:
“Technically this is the most difficult thing I have ever done,” said the ad’s director, Frank Budgen. “It is an incredibly difficult situation to control. You have New Yorkers wandering through frames and you have no say over it because we’re doing it for real.”
Heh. I can imagine. It’s kind of funny seeing random bystanders in the commercial. Did you catch the kid making a face at the camera? I would have totally done that too.
Balls
Back in July 2005, Sony BRAVIA did something similar in San Francisco as well. They sent 250,000 multi-colored superballs down a hilly street—I’m guessing somewhere in Portrero Hill?
According to Sony, this took two days and twenty-three video cameras to shoot.
An entire block was closed off and special compressed-air cannons shot the balls into the air, while earth moving equipment poured thousands down the street. Not that you’d know it from the finished product, but these balls can do some damage, so all the cars were props and crew members went so far as to having protective shields and crash helmets.
I would have loved to have seen this too. I wonder if the dog in the commercial was a prop or just a lucky coincidence. The river of balls must have been awesome. It kind of makes me want to buy a bunch of superballs and unleash them in North Beach—right into the tourists at Fisherman’s Wharf. Muhahaha!
Paint
Sony BRAVIA hasn’t limited their fun to the US though. In July 2006 they visited Glasgow, Scotland to blast 70,000 liters of non-toxic water-based paint all over a couple of buildings. Sounds crazy, right? Watch:
Now that looks awesome. Paint and explosions. How cool is that. This effect required over 1,400 separate explosions and 250 people over the course of ten days. All that paint needed twenty people to mix it on-site. According to Sony, cleaning it up was a royal pain too.
The effect was stunning, but afterwards a major clean-up operation was required to clear away all that paint!
The cleaning took 5 days and 60 people. Thankfully, the use of a special water-based paint made it easy to scrape-up once the water had evaporated.
I’ve got to hand it to the Sony BRAVIA advertising team. They’ve done some amazing work! Must have cost Sony a fortune too.
Though, after watching all these commercials, I still had to look up Sony BRAVIA to find out what they were really selling…
