When 250,000 bouncy balls took over San Francisco
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Screenshot courtesy of 32cn32 on YouTube
Imagine this: You're walking around one sunny day on the north side of the city when you hear what sounds like a thunderstorm. Suddenly, you turn and see thousands of colorful rubber balls bouncing toward you in full force.
Why it matters: Longtime San Francisco residents will remember the whimsy and fun unleashed by a torrent of 250,000 bouncy balls in 2005. The spectacle was carefully orchestrated and created one of the most memorable ads of all time.
Flashback: Danish director Nicolai Fuglsig came up with the idea after seeing a prompt from a British ad agency revolving around the slogan "Colour like no other."
- He and his production team soon began prepping the materials they'd need for what would become an award-winning ad for Sony Bravia TV sets.
- A fan of the movie "Bullitt," he chose San Francisco and its famous hills as the backdrop.
Yes, but: It wasn't easy to pull together.
- To create the launch system, they rented a soundstage in Culver City and ran multiple tests to get the balls high enough in the air, eventually settling on a proprietary mortar model fashioned after truck-mounted cannons.
- Meanwhile, location scout Patrick Ranahan had to persuade everyone in the neighborhood to agree to the shoot and get a permit from the city, which they did after promising residents they'd fix everything they damaged or destroyed.
The intrigue: On the day of the shoot, crew members showed up wearing Kevlar armor and helmets and wielding riot shields.
- The production team's six cameras were each encased by protective plywood.
- They had installed golf driving-range nets at the bottom of the hill and covered all the sewer drains in the balls' path.
- A glass repair company was also on site with replacement windowpanes.
Behind the scenes: Six houses and 24 of the production team's picture vehicles were damaged.
- The storm of bouncy balls straight up put holes in car doors and demolished foliage.
- Their bill for broken windows totaled $74,000, yet spectators and residents alike took absolute joy in it, according to SFGATE.
💠My thought bubble: Though I was living abroad at the time of the ad's release in November 2005, the video circulated so widely it was still making the rounds when I returned a few years later.
- We didn't have things like memes or "trending" pages back then, but it was obvious the ad's celebration of color extended to San Francisco and its love of all things wacky and weird.
What they're saying: "Herb Caen always had this thing that this city is special because, 'It knows how to do it.' It's a city that knows how," Ranahan told SFGATE.
- "If you want a demonstration, if you want to fight the war, if you want Beats, or the hippies," he added. "It's a city that says 'yes' and can do it."