Mountain is a 2003 television and cinema advertisement launched by Sony Corporation to promote the PlayStation 2 video game console. The budget for production and advertising space purchases for the 60-second piece amounted to £5m across all markets. The commercial depicts a Brazilian crowd congregating to form a mountain of human bodies, all competing to reach the top of the pile. The campaign surrounding Mountain was handled by advertising agency TBWA London. The commercial was directed by Frank Budgen. Production was contracted to Gorgeous Enterprises, with post-production by The Mill. Mountain premiered in 30 countries on 13 November 2003.
Mountain is part of the larger "Fun, Anyone?" series, launched earlier in 2003, which aimed to increase market share for the PlayStation 2 in the family demographic. The advertisement and its associated campaign were a critical and financial success. Mountain was nominated for over 40 awards from professional organisations in the advertising and television industries, including the Film Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, considered the most prestigious award in the advertising community. Due in large part to the buzz generated by Mountain, sales for the 2003 Christmas period exceeded expectations, and the PlayStation 2's share of the console market increased from 74 to 77 percent.
Sequence The piece opens with a man perched on the edge of a skyscraper looking out over an urban landscape. Shirley Temple's "De Gospel Train" (from the film Dimples) begins to play, and the view switches to show a crowd running through the streets, towards a heaving pile of people which forms a ramp up the side of a building. Everyone clambers over each other in an attempt to reach the top of the slope where, after a brief celebration, each is thrown back down by the others so a new person can take the top spot. The camera zooms out to a wide shot of the "mountain", and the campaign's strapline "Fun Anyone?" appears, followed by "PlayStation 2: Play the world online".
Production The PlayStation 2 was released in 2000, backed by "dark and mysterious" advertisements designed to appeal primarily to the 18–24-year-old male demographic.Mancini, Candice; "Case Study: "Fun, Anyone?" Campaign for Sony Corporation", Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns, Vol 2., Thomson Gale, 2007. Page 1524 The marketing campaign surrounding the release proved highly successful. Over the following three years, sales of the PlayStation 2 accounted for 74% of the console market.Mancini, Candice; "Case Study: "Fun, Anyone?" Campaign for Sony Corporation", Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns, Vol 2., Thomson Gale, 2007. Page 1523 In 2003, the advertising agency behind the PlayStation 2 campaign, TBWA Worldwide, began looking into ways to expand sales of the console into other markets, in particular, families with young children. To this end, a new set of advertisements were commissioned using the strapline "Fun, Anyone?". The premise of the campaign was to showcase more gender-neutral, family-friendly advertisements. Many of the television spots were animated to appeal to younger children, including Dancing Robot, Laughing Mouths, Winners and Losers, and Wobble. A new television spot was concepted for the 2003 Christmas period. The brief to the creative team was that the ad had to show people competing to be the best, to showcase the worldwide community of friendly competition surrounding the PlayStation 2. After discarding several ideas, the team eventually settled on the idea of a "King of the Mountain" game featuring a huge crowd of competitors. This concept would eventually evolve into Mountain."Playstation 2 on the Mountain", The Inspiration Room Daily, November 30, 2005. Retrieved November 13, 2009.
With a script written out, the creative team began looking for a director for the project. Eventually chosen was Frank Budgen, whose work with production company Gorgeous Enterprises had won a number of awards, including the 2001 Film Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival for Nike's Tag,Fera, Rae Ann; "The year of Frank ", Boards, December 1, 2002. Retrieved November 13, 2009. considered the most prestigious award in the advertising industry.Howard, Theresa; "Fewer ads entered at Cannes Lions as fewer people attend", USA Today, June 21, 2009. Retrieved September 12, 2009.Agarwal, Sapna; "Indian entries, registrations to Cannes Lions see a drop", Business Standard, June 19, 2009. Retrieved September 12, 2009. Mountain was shot in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Mancini, Candice; "Case Study: "Fun, Anyone?" Campaign for Sony Corporation", Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns, Vol 2., Thomson Gale, 2007. Page 1525 Over 1500 extras were recruited by a local production service company, Zohar International, for the six-day shoot, though no more than 500 were on set on any particular day.The Mill; "The Mill Builds a People Mountain for Playstation " (press release), CGSociety, May 20, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009. The extras included 50 stuntmen, gymnasts, and circus performers. Five carefully placed cameras were used to capture the early crowd scenes, buildings, and backgrounds. The final shot was taken by a helicopter-mounted camera, of the 50 trained extras running and climbing up a 20 ft cone fitted to the top of the Rio Sul Center.
Post-production work was done by The Mill. Since the majority of the buildings and backgrounds were captured in-camera, the bulk of the work consisted of crowd replication, set extensions, and limited CGI work on extreme wide shots. Crowd replication was achieved using MASSIVE software. At the time, The Mill was the only production company, other than its New Zealand-based creators Weta, licensed to use the software. Mountain was The Mill's first project to use the software.Desowitz, Bill; "Massive Agents to Invade SIGGRAPH 2004", Animation World Network, August 5, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009. In all, Mill 3D artist Jordi Bares created 146,000 digital characters were created with individual behaviour patterns.
Release and reception Schedule Mountain first appeared as a 60-second television and cinema spot in 30 countries throughout Europe and Asia on November 13, 2003. These appearances were backed by a poster campaign running from November 13 to December 24. The posters were widely distributed. In Germany alone, TBWA purchased space for 315 posters inside cinemas, with a further 36 outdoors and 38 oversized (3.49m2) posters, as well as appearing as inserts on 323 foyer screens. A 42-second version of the commercial screened in 36 cinemas across Germany.TBWA Panel; "Cannes Presentation for Best Use of Cinema", Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival (2004). The overall spend for the "Fun, Anyone?" campaign over the 2003 Christmas period amounted to £5m. Mountain continued to air on television throughout 2004 in 10-, 30-, and 60-second versions. Despite its origins in the United Kingdom, it had not been aired in mainland Britain as of July 2004.Fisher, Francesca; "TBWA London wins Cannes Grand Prix", Campaign, July 2, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009.
Awards List of awards""Mountain" Commercial Made With Massive Wins Cannes Lion Grand Prix " (press release), Massive website. June 28, 2004. Retrieved November 16, 2009.Art Directors Club of Europe AwardsGold – Television CommercialBritish Television Advertising AwardsGold – Computer Hardware Gold – European Gold – Toys & Games Silver – Television CommercialsBritish Television Craft AwardsWinner – Best Crafted Commercial of the Year Winner – Camera Operator Winner – Direction Winner – Stunts Winner – Use of Recorded Music Winner – Video Post Production Shortlist – Cinematography Shortlist – Computer Animation Shortlist – Editing Shortlist – Production DesignCannes Lions International Advertising FestivalGrand Prix – Film Gold – Entertainment and LeisureClio AwardsGold – Technique: Visual EffectsCreative Circle AwardsGold – Best Direction Gold – Best Cinematography Gold – Best Special Effects or Computer Graphics Gold – Best Use of Music Silver – Best Editing Silver – Best International Commercial Bronze – Best Film Art Direction Bronze – Best Idea in 60 Seconds or OverD&AD AwardsSilver Award – TV & Cinema Crafts – Cinematography Silver Award – TV & Cinema Crafts – Direction Silver Award – TV & Cinema Crafts – Special Effects Silver Award – TV & Cinema Crafts – Use of MusicEpica AwardsWinner – Audiovisiual Equipment & AccessoriesInternational ANDY AwardsSilver – Best Use of Existing Music Silver – Toys, Games & SportsKinsale AwardsGrand Prix – Cinema Gold – Cinema Gold – Craft: Best Direction Gold – Craft: Post Production Gold – Craft: Best Use of Music Gold – LeisureLondon International Advertising AwardsGrand Prize – Television/Cinema Winner – Computer Animation Winner – Home Entertainment EquipmentNew York FestivalsGrand Award – Best Creative/Production Achievement Gold – Craft: Best Direction Gold – Craft: Best New Arrangement of Popular Theme Gold – Toys & GamesThe One ShowSilver – TV Over 30 Seconds Mountain was a critical success, garnering more than 40 awards and nominations within the advertising and television industries.Gunn, Donald; Wilkie, Emma. The Gunn Report and Showreel of the Year (6th edition). Holbrook: FlaxmanWilkie. It was the second-most-awarded commercial of 2004, after Cog for the Honda Accord.Anderson, Mae; "DDB Wins Most Awards in 2004", Advertising Weekly, November 15, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009. At the BTAA Craft Awards, Mountain was shortlisted for ten out of twenty categories, winning in six.DeMott, Rick; "PlayStation Mountain Spot Takes British Ad Craft Awards", Animation World Network, November 3, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009. In the run-up to the largest advertising awards ceremony of the year, the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Mountain was tipped as a frontrunner for the festival's Grand Prix.Anderson, Mae; "Burnett Predicts Cannes Winners", Advertising Weekly, June 8, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009. The chief competition for the prize was believed to be Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor for Bud Light and Prison Visitor for Vim Bleach.Parpis, Eleftheria; Mack, Ann M.; "TBWA's 'Mountain' Tops Cannes Awards", Advertising Weekly, June 26, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009.Timms, Dominic; "PlayStation 'Mountain' ad scales heights at Cannes", The Guardian, June 28, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009."Visual wizardry wins at Cannes ", Boards, June 29, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009. The 22 members of the awards jury spent six days deliberating over the decision, before ultimately awarding the prize to Mountain.Parpis, Eleftheria; Mack, Ann M.; "Jurors Take 'Fun' Route To Grand Prix", Adweek, June 28, 2004. Retrieved November 13, 2009. Jury president Piyush Pandey commented: "it was the simplicity of the idea and the magnitude of execution that helped Mountain stand out." The ad also received a Gold award in the Excellence in Music category, for the use of Shirley Temple's "De Gospel Train". Campaign magazine remarked: "Shirley Temple's sweet, innocent vocals contrast splendidly with the frenzy of activity onscreen.""The Book of Lists: The 10 Best soundtracks of 2003", Campaign, December 16, 2003. Retrieved November 13, 2009.