Tree of Fruitopia?

[IEDSRI@aol.com]

Marcel Rijs asks whether anyone would like to send him a PAL copy of all the
Fruitopia ads.  As IED has now had several other requests for same (from
Europe-based Love-Hounds), and is sure there are many U.S. fans who would be
interested,  he suggests that a Love-Hounds Collection Volume 2 might well be
in order sooner rather than later (?).  Thoughts on the subject, anyone? 

The video for "The Man I Love" would be a welcome addition (does anyone have
it?), as well as Kate's recent appearance on the UK children's programme,
"Record Breakers", which was supposed to have aired on October 7th (did no
one see it?  Will anyone report on it?)  That said, let us move on to the
issue at hand:

FRUITOPIA:  A LIST OF KATE BUSH-SCORED COMMERCIAL FILMS

General note:  These are the TV ads (and one theatre ad).  They
may or may not correspond in some way to the radio ads, which
IED has never heard.  In one respect, however, they are different from any
radio ad (and this is why they are so wonderful):  the TV ads have no
spoken-word vocal pitch to 
obscure Kate Bush's music.  All the text in the ads is read-only.  

Please forgive any awkwardness in IED's description of the visuals and
(particularly) the music.  It's the best he could do.
Finally, IED takes no responsibility for the slightly nauseating
tone of the texts and the names of individual flavors of 
Fruitopia.

01.  "Fighting Fruit" (official Coca-Cola title).  30 seconds.  
       Specific flavor touted:  Fruit Integration.  
       The ad's text reads:  "The apples don't fight the pineapples
       in Fruit Integration.  People could learn a lot from fruit."
       N.B.:  All the ads end with the tag line, "For the mind
       [represented by a simple drawing of a head], body [stick
       figure], planet [sketch of Earth]."
       Visual distinctions of this ad:  Unique in that it shows
       recognizable shots of pineapple.
       Music:  4/4, mid-tempo.  A pretty melody by high synth,
       with heavy synthetic drum-kit rhythm (snares on second
       and third downbeat of each measure);  halfway through, 
       Kate (her voice recognizable), chants gleefully, "Hey! Hey!
       Juice!"

02.  "Nice" (official title).  30 seconds.  
       Specific flavor:  Pink Lemonade Euphoria.  
       The text reads:  "If your mouth can't say something nice, 
       put something nice in it.  Please try Pink Lemonade 
       Euphoria."  
       Visual distinctions:  Very yellow, with some pink -- lots
       of lemons, starting out against a black background.
       Music:  4/4, mid-tempo.  A synthetic tribal bass-drum
       sound on the first downbeat of each measure is the only
       percussion,  and the main instrumental music, carried by
       synthetic flutes (in simple two-note chords), is a cadence
       of syncopated sixteenth-notes.  Over this Kate (barely 
       recognizable -- some listeners originally described this
       as sounding like Japanese schoolgirls) chants what sound
       like (but may not be) English words including the phrase 
       "something's coming".  
 
03.  "Passion" (IED's title).  30 seconds.  
      Specific flavor:  Strawberry Passion Awareness.
      Text:  "The ancient Maori believed passion fruit was a 
      powerful aphrodisiac.  Hey, it couldn't hurt.  Try 
      Strawberry Passion Awareness." 
      Visual distinctions:  Lots of strawberries and halved
      apples.
      Music:  4/4.  a chorus of tribal drums, with two
      harmonically unrelated descending minor thirds (the first
      in staccato triplets, the second in legato dotted
      quarter-notes) the only other music.

04. "Raspberry" (IED's title): 30 seconds. 
      Flavor:  Raspberry Psychic Lemonade. 
      Text:  "There is a wonderful person inside you who is dying
      to get out.  Please drink a Raspberry Psychic Lemonade for
      him/her."  
      Visual distinctions:  Starts with raspberries against a
      black background, also lots of lemons.
      Music:  4/8.  Slow bongo rhythm, with a pretty little
      melody by electric piano, and a soft synthetic bass. 

05.  "Message of Love" (IED's rather yucky title).  30 seconds.
      Flavor:  Lemonade Love and Hope. 
      Text:  "If you can't judge a fruit by the color of its skin,
      how can you judge a person that way?  A message of
      Lemonade, Love and Hope."  
      Visual distinctions:  Completely yellow,  nothing but
      lemons.
      Music:  4/4, medium-fast tempo.  Tabla drum pattern with
      mandolins (?) supporting Kate's (recognizable) "drum-talk" 
      (?) -- the "diggety-dah, diggy-dah" stuff (Indian) that
      Sheila Chandra has made popular (though it can be heard at 
      the end of Kate's1982 track, "Get Out of My House", too).

06.  "Soul" (official title).  30 seconds.
       Flavor:  Citrus Consciousness.
       Text:  "This is what Citrus Consciousness can do to your 
       tongue.  Imagine what it can do for your soul."
       Visual distinctions:  Lemons, limes and oranges.  The 
       text is revealed on the screen one word at a time, each
       word appearing simultaneously in different parts of the
       screen.
       Music:  3/4,  medium-slow.  This is a wistful little waltz, 
       with synthetic pizzicato strings setting the beat, and 
       synthetic oboes (?) playing an odd, childlike melody 
       that begins in a single voice, ends with harmony a third 
       below.    

07.  "Where Were You?"  (IED's title).  30 seconds.
       Flavor:  Cranberry Lemonade Vision. 
       Text:  "Where were you when:  the second man walked on
       the moon?  the Berlin Wall went up?  This commercial
       started?  You had your first Cranberry Vision?"
       Visual distinctions:  Begins with a shot of lemons that 
       look a little like Pacmen against a black background.  Most
       of the ad shows deep red cranberries and bright yellow 
       lemons against a deep greenish-gold background.
       Music:  4/4, mid-tempo.  Begins and ends just with
       sampled (?) hand-claps; features a simple synth
       keyboard melody in block chords set against a basic
       drum-kit beat.  

08.  "Teaser" (IED's title).  30 seconds.
       Flavor:  no specific flavor is mentioned.  This ad appeared 
       very early in the campaign.  Not to be confused with ad no.
       9, also for no specific flavor.
       Text:  "The following 30 seconds will not inspire:  violent
       crime, a religious experience, conscpicuous consumption.
       It may, however, make you thirsty."
       Visual distinctions:  great variety of colors, none 
       dominant.  Ends with some pale purplish colors, turning
       to red (cranberries or cherries) against a near-black 
       background.
       Music:  4/4.  Slow.  A quiet heartbeat drum-pattern is 
       the only percussion.  A lazy melody by an electric 
       piano sounds quasi-improvised.

09.  "Summer Solstice" (official title). 30 seconds (see No. 10).
       Flavor:  No specific flavor is mentioned.
       Text:  "The summer solstice is:  a pagan ritual.  The 
       summer solstice is:  the first day of summer.  The 
       summer solstice is:  a happy day for people who practice
       voodoo.  The summer solstice is:  the first day of
       Fruitopia."
       Visual distinctions:  the most varied use of color, showing
       all kinds of fruit in quick succession, starting with a lot 
       of red grapes (looking dark gray) against a black and red 
       background.
       Music:  4/4.  Medium-slow. Cymbal-free drum-kit
       percussion; a heavy, repetitive bassline on a single minor
       third; weird, high melody-line by unidentifiable synth 
       voice; and Kate's voice (recognizable) half-muttering 
       half-words, and (sampled) again, singing what sounds like
       a loop of "boy-boy-boy,  boy, boy-OY, boy, boy!" 

10.  "What If?"  (official title).  60 seconds.  Wide-screen.
       N.B.:  This ad, twice the length of all the others, was made
       for screening in movie theatres.  The ad includes the
       footage from No. 09 ("Summer Solstice") above, and 
       reveals that the shorter version was a pan-and-scan of 
       the wide-screen original.
       Flavor:  No specific flavor is mentioned.
       Text:  "What if. . .  nobody voted?  you die not knowing?
       you never fall in love?  extraterrestrials are us, not 
       them?  the experts are wrong?  fashion does matter?
       everybody was the same color? virtual reality is 
       reality?  you hugged the person next to you?  you 
       are alone?  there were no last names?  there really
       is someone out there?  you never read 'Madame Bovary'?
       the cynics are right?  you spill your popcorn?  everybody
       could draw?  everybody could sing?  you never needed a
       passport?  nobody was hungry?  tribes didn't exist?  you
       didn't attend Woodstock? you're thirsty? the end is 
       near?  people stop reading?  nobody had to sleep alone?
       this movie changes your life?  your pet is your best 
       friend?  nobody cried?  this is all there is?  Fruitopian
       queries have no answers?"
       Visual distinctions:  same as No. 09 above, but longer, 
       and wide-screen.
       Music:  same as 09, only a longer re-mix.

11.  Unidentified ad for a lime-flavored drink.  (IED has not
       seen or heard this one.)  
                    
So here is the state of affairs in Fruitopia:  IED has now collected (thanks
enormously to Brian Leake and Karen Newcombe!) good copies of Fruitopia Nos.
01, 02, 06, and 09 (30 seconds each) plus No. 10 (the "wide-screen" theatre
ad, 60 seconds long, uses a longer mix of No. 09).  

In addition, he has now amassed some pretty awful copies of Nos. 03, 04, 05,
07 and 08 (30 seconds each; see above).  Anyone who has any or all of these
five in reasonably good stereo form will be sincerely thanked for making them
available for a Love-Hounds tape.  

The article in "Shoot!" magazine, which alerted us all to Kate's connection
with Fruitopia, mentioned a total of nine ads, and this was confirmed in
telephone conversations with two people connected with Coca-Cola.  It was
never made clear 
whether the long ad (No. 10) was not counted among those nine
because it was really just a version of No. 09), but it appears
that this is the case.

The problem is, Karen Newcombe has assured IED that, while in Chicago a
couple of weeks ago, she saw still another ad (no. 11), "all green", which
plugged a "lime" flavor of the produKT.
 This news throws everything into doubt again, and leads to the question,
Could Kate have made more than the original batch of nine tracks of music
(plus the long version of one of them), and could another collection simply
be waiting in the wings, or getting gradual exposure as older ads are
withdrawn?  IED has tried to get a clear answer from various ad agencies and
divisions of Coke, Fruitopia and MinuteMaid, all to no avail thus far.  But
he noticed a grape-flavored 
Fruitopia drink in a store the other day, for which he has not
yet seen an ad. . . .  

So he asks the Love-Hounds, has anyone captured on video this elusive "lime"
ad, or any other Fruitopia ads that do not conform to the descriptions of the
ten others posted above?
If so, would he or she please contact IED via e-mail?  Wouldn't it be nice if
we could get a definitive homemade compilation of the ads ready for inclusion
on a Love-Hounds Collection Volume 2?

-- Andrew Marvick (IED)
     "Hey! Hey! JUICE!"