Ok, story time for all good girls and boys...
(and all frog lovers everywhere!)

The Little Blue Frog

Once upon a time in a country far away there once was a company that created a little animated short to display their amazing creativity and ability to help companies advertise. It's inventor, Erik Wernquist, also known as the amazing frog tamer decided to use a little blue frog. The essence of the short digital story was the ability of the bored little blue frog to use his imagination and create a 2 cylinder motorcycle on which to play. He is so successful that the imaginary motorcycle takes off with him on it!

What a wonderful little frog. So cute but so...naked. The little short (made in 1997) was called 'The Annoying Thing'. This short was seen by lots of people who so enjoyed it that they told their friends, who told their friends, who mentioned it to a few million people. The result? This little blue frog became known as 'Crazy Frog'. A company contacted Erik and suggested he market the little ugly thing, to which he promptly replied..."Really? Seriously? hmm, well, ok, but I don't know who would buy it."

In the meantime, realizing that so many people were beginning to ask for more of the little blue guy, he created a music video based on the song from Beverly Hills Cop. And so was born the 'Crazy Frog' epidemic. From little videos to dolls that ding ding, to posters, cd's and a hundred other marketing ideas (which include ring tones) an empire was born. About which a much richer Erik Wernquist smiles, while scratching his head still trying to figure out what it was that made people really like his cute little animation.

Here it is... the original. I might want to remind you that he is wearing a vest and nothing else... something I didn't notice at first viewing...which was more than 10 years ago. However, the debate when the marketing reached America raged on, and many of his American appearances have the small appendage simply air-brushed out. Please don't be offended, remember that the culture in other countries is a lot more liberal where advertising is concerned and for the Netherlands-it is considered extremely tame and children are allowed to view it unsupervised.

http://hem.bredband.net/turbo2/the_annoying_thing_320x256.mpg

And here is the first music video Erik created:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k85mRPqvMbE

Long live Crazy Frog! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee