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Kate Bush Soundtracks for Fruitopia Commercials
Complete list of ads, with descriptions
Sound samples:
From: rlovejoy@pipeline.com (Robert Lovejoy)
Date: 4 Aug 1994 19:35:41
-0400
Subject: A Bush-el of Fruitopia (SHOOT, July 1994)
Hello RMG!
This isn't my usual territory, but I do lurk in now and then. I'm usually over on Ecto. However, the following article caught my eye and I thought it would be nice to share it with you. I'm in the television postproduction business, and one of our trade papers, SHOOT, deals with all aspects of commercial-making. In their current issue, dated July 29, the following article appears:
A Bush-el of Fruitopia
by Michael Clark
When Kate Bush took the assignment to do the music for Coca-Cola's new Fruitopia spots, it was indeed free rein for the British singer/songwriter People magazine once dubbed "The Queen of Ethereal Pop". Chiat/Day, New York, creative director Marty Cooke and executive producer Andrew Chinich were overjoyed when Bush agreed to do not only one, but all nine of the spots in the Fruitopia campaign. Perhaps the fact that they told her she could do anything she wanted with the scores had something to do with it. In any case, Cooke and Chinich were just glad to get Bush on the job, which she did from London with a bunch of hand-picked musicians.
"In early tests, we played different music against the visuals, and Kate Bush music felt intuitive and right," Cooke says. "It gave the campaign a lot more consistency than it would have otherwise." Bush, with 15 years of producing her own eclectic albums (and video clips) in the music business, was told only to provide a "variety" of styles and moods for the Fruiopia spots directed by Greg Ramsey out of bicoastal Farenheit Films.
The spots, which broke in early July in a variety of 0:30s and a 0:60 cinema version called "What If," features intense kaleidescope-style manipulations of brightly colored fruit. Serendipitous text appears in the center of the psychedelic frame, with the soundtracks by Bush giving the spot an almost dizzying pace.
"We're very pleased...all the indications are that the music is one of the strongest parts of the campaign," says Chiat/Day's Cooke. Bush supplied a variety of soundtracks, from a version that is heavy on percussion, to a poppy "lounge" guitar/keyboard combination, to one Cooke describes as sounding "like a bunch of Japanese schoolchildren."
For the cinema 0:60 "What If," which is number one on the most recent SHOOT Top 10 Spot Tracks chart, Bush put down a track of very tribal percussion with layers of rhythmic chants that blend with the changing fields of rotating fruit.
"She said she was interested in providing a lot of variety, from Japanese drummers to Moroccan music...and she came through in spades," Cooke says.
----------
I for one was unaware that Kate had done this music. My son and I were watching teevee together recently and were both pleasantly impressed by one of the spots described.
Best wishes to everyone,
Bob Lovejoy
From: ied0dxm@aol.com (IED0DXM)
Date: 5 Aug 1994 20:18:02 -0400
Subject: re: Fruitopia
Thanks to Bob Lovejoy, too, for his hugely appreciated news report about the Fruitopia campaign! IED was unfortunately too late reading Bob's posting to do anything about getting a tape of the spots from Chiat/Day in time for Karen's fiercely anticipated postKatemas party tomorrow, but perhaps we will be successful later on. Meanwhile, IED (and he hopes many others in this group) will be trying to capture Fruitopia ads on TV in the coming days. Did Peter FitzGerald-Morris and the Homeground crew know of this unexpeKTed turn in Kate's career? Btw, if Kate has been wise enough to negotiate for residuals on this account, she stands to make more from the Fruitopia ads than she's ever made from all her album and single sales combined.
From: llovich@aol.com (Llovich)
Date: 5 Aug 1994 22:30:02 -0400
Subject: Re: Fruitopia
IED writes:
>Thanks to Bob Lovejoy for his hugely appreciated news report about the Fruitopia campaign!
I'm still in shock. I've been seeing (and hearing) these commercials for weeks and thinking, "My god ... someone's doing a good Kate imitation." Well, just knock me over with a feather! By the way, I keep encountering the commercials on Comedy Central if you're really looking to tape them.
From: nessus@mit.edu (Douglas Alan)
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 16:15:01 GMT
Subject: Fruitopia
This past Saturday I set my VCR on EP and recorded six hours of Empty-V in the hopes of catching some of those Furitopia commercials. Within the first hour I got three of the the nine ads! Unfortunately, in the remaining five hours, though, I got not one. So three will have to tide me over. As an extra added bonus, I got every episode of the second season of *Eon Flux*. What more could a guy ask for? I am very happy. (I'm still dizzy though from watching six hours of Emtpy-V on fast forward.)
The music from all three of the ads that I caught were rather new-agey. They were definitely Kate though! Especially number 2. I think one of the ads I saw a couple weeks ago was a bit more techno, but my memory is vague.
Here's a brief description of the music from the ads I caught:
(1) Mellow echoey piano with a heart-beat drum pattern.
(2) Kate does drum-talk on national TV! This one was described in the published article posted here a few days ago as sounding like a bunch of Japanese school kids. I guess the author has never heard drum talk, but this is a dead give-away that these commercials were done by Kate (or Sheila Chandra, but they don't sound like Sheila).
(3) Mellow band and piano sound with bongos instead of a drum-kit. Kate sings "la la la" in the background.
Of course, the music for all three is complete genius (for music that sounds like it was thrown together in a couple of days for a TV commercial, that is).
|>oug
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 94 23:34 CDT
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Re: Fruitopia
A couple of things: I was putting on a t-shirt this morning. The Eat The Music "field'o'fruit" shirt from the convention, with only the fruit and not a single word about Kate. Pretty subliminal. As soon as I had pulled it over my head and saw the image in the mirror (the first time I had done so since learning about the Fruitopia music) I flashed on the resemblance between this shirt and those commercials. Am I actually wearing a Frutopia advert, rather than the Kate Bush t-shirt that I thought I bought? I mean, I bought it at a Kate Bush fan convention, along with hundreds of other Kate Bush fans, so I kind of assumed that it was a Kate shirt. So the obvious question... was Kate having one of her mind-bogglingly obscure joking hidden references? "I've got a secret. See if you can find it..."
(As soon as I finished typing that last sentence, the "Japanese Childern Singing" 30 second spot played during the second break of the Tonight Show. It sounds like Japanese Childern Singing, *not* drum talk, so this must be one of the other ones. Actually it strikes me as kind of Steve Reich-like, if he had more of a sense of fun.)
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 1994 16:55:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Karen L.
Newcombe" <kln@crl.com>
Subject: Frutopia Marketing Budget -
First Year
IED is possibly correct in thinking that Kate will make more money from the small pieces of music she's composed for Frutopia than from all her albums combined.
John Naisbitt's Trend Letter reports that the first-year marketing budget for Frutopia is $ 30 million (U.S.)
I hope Kate got a good sizable chunk of that!
From: s0pdfm@assam.exnet.com (P D Fitzgerald-Morris)
Date: Mon, 22 Aug
1994 19:58:33 GMT
Subject: Kate and Frutopia
Hello All, I think Kate wants the money from the Frutopia ads for a new film project....Is frutopia to launched in Europe?
From: IEDSRI@aol.com
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 17:11:14 -0400
Subject: Tree of Fruitopia?
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:
[A more complete list can be found here]
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.
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]."
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."
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!"
From: IEDSRI@aol.com
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 1994 18:00:10 -0500
Subject: Fruitopia, for the record
IED was recently told by someone at the company that actually shot the spots (Fahrenheit Films, in NYC) that Kate was their choice right from the beginning (before the ads were even shot), and that they never considered asking anyone else. (Of course, this would be the standard ad-agency answer anyway, probably: you don't want to admit you settled for your second choice.)
IED was told that she was involved with the spots from very early on. The only request they made was that there be a broad range of musical styles, that no two should sound alike.
Date: Sat, 26 Nov 94 12:30 CST
From: chrisw@fciad2.bsd.uchicago.edu
(chris williams)
Subject: Re: Fruitopia, for the record
[conc. production of frutopia]
My information was from Post , a magazine for the post-production business (editing, graphics and animation.) They had a image from the theatrical spot and a couple of paragraphs about the making of the spots. I can't find it at the moment, so this is from memory. The two designers from McKane-Ericson (sp?) decided to use Kate after storyboards and rough animatics (moving camera shots of the storyboard stills) but well before the actual production. So, we are both right. It just depends of the definition of the term "begining."
Fahrenheit was the coordinating producer on the spots. The actual production was done at Click 3X, a state-of-the-art New York editing and animation facility. They did the tabletop shots of fruit. These were used as texture maps in a Softimage 3D animation and the final images were smoothed and blended in a Flame system. The entire edit was done in D-1 component digital.
>>The agency paid for the production and Kate gets a royalty for the music.
> IED has had no confirmation of this. In fact, it was this question which effectively ended IED's interview with one Coke spokesperson. Does Chris know for a fact that Kate's contract entitles her to residuals, or whether she may have settled for a flat fee?
This was an assumption. Kate is the composer, musician and singer. The latter two might receive a lump payment, but a composer always gets royalties. The story went on to mention that the agency paid for studio time, but it seemed to imply that the spots were not done at Kate's home studio, but at a "London studio."
From: "J.A.Harkness" <J.A.Harkness@sheffield.ac.uk>
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 10:13:45 +0100
Subject: Fruitopi -urgh!
Andy Semple wrote:
> Whilst watching the lucky French beat Scotland in the Rugby World Cup yesterday I was taken by surprise!! The distinctive tones of our beloved Kate could clearly be heard in the Fruitopia ad at the end of the game.
Distinctive? Um, I wasn't actually looking at the TV screen and thought "Oooh, it's the Cocteau Twins!".......ah, well!
The ad was the Kaleidoscopic one which suddenly says 'Fruitopia' in a most unlikely way.........actually, much as I love Kate and the Cocteaus (Cocteaux?) I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed.....I guess this is what months of anticipation does for you.....sigh!
And, Fruitopia isn't all that nice, either....I'd much rather have Snapple!
A depressed Will Yum!
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 1995 13:55:53 +0100
From: s.telford@ed.ac.uk (Scott
Telford)
Subject: Re: Frutopia / Cocteau Twins
Thought y'all might be amused by this posting I saw in our uk.misc newsgroup:
Paul Eade <paule@hamlet.slk.press.net> writes:
>Has anyone seen the tv ad for a new drink called Frutopia, I think? The music for this is by the Cocteau Twins (or very good copyists). But does anyone know what the track is? If so, pls mail me
The ad that's showing in the UK at the moment (only the one variation, AFAIK) has lots of lemons in the background, "if your mouth can't say something nice..." captions and a soundtrack with indecipherable lyrics backed with lots of high la-la-la's. Doesn't actually sound *unmistakably* like Kate to me. If it is, one must presume that she's taken up singing in Bulgarian or something....8-)
From: smith david rt <p0070421@brookes.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 29 Jun
1995 19:00:33 +0000
Subject: Fruitopia
I have to agree with Scott Telford of Univ of Edindurgh that one of the Fruitopia adverts doesn't sound like KaTe. So far I've seen two (I think) adverts and one was definitely KaTe. The second one sounded a lot like the Cocteau Twins (and no I can't remember the name of the lead singer.) As an aside I actually bought a bottle of Fruitopia, very nice, a bit pricey though.
From: Steve ZPJ <zpj@huskbeat.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 1995
09:11:54 +0000
Subject: Fruitopia in the UK
I've just been reading the latest issue of Homeground and it states that all the UK Fruitopia adverts are definitely Liz Fraser from the Cocteau Twins and the adverts with Kate's voice are not going to be shown in the UK. So, if anyone in the UK thinks that they heard Kate's voice on any of the adverts, they are sadly mistaken.
--Steve ZPJ
From: IEDSRI@aol.com
Date: Sat, 1 Jul 1995
21:48:46 -0400
Subject: The State of Fruitopia
In response to Karen's suggestion, here is an updated description of all eleven Kate Bush-scored Fruitopia commercials seen in the U.S. to date. N.B.: These were NOT scored by Cocteau Twins or Liz Fraser, though IED greatly appreciates Steve ZPJ's report explaining that UK audiences are hearing Liz Fraser and not Kate. IED therefore produces the information below even though European fans' interest in the following may perforce remain only academic.
FRUITOPIA:
A LIST OF KATE BUSH-SCORED COMMERCIAL FILMS
General note: These are the TV ads (and one theatre ad). They reportedly do not correspond to the radio ads, though IED has never heard those. 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.
Note that although several new (1995) Fruitopia commercials have been aired in the United States, only one of these actually contains new Kate Bush music not heard in any of the first (1994) collection. IED mentions this because several people have reported seeing additional 1995 spots; unfortunately, these are simply new visuals attached to Kate's earlier (1994) musics.
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.
I. 1994 commercials:
SPECIFIC FLAVOR TOUTED: Fruit Integration.
TEXT: "The apples don't fight the pineapples in Fruit Integration. People could learn a lot from fruit."
VISUALS: This ad, like all of them, end with the tag line, "For the mind [represented by a simple drawing of a head], body [stick figure], planet [sketch of Earth]." Visuals include 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!"
FLAVOR: Pink Lemonade Euphoria.
TEXT: "If your mouth can't say something nice, put something nice in it. Please try Pink Lemonade Euphoria."
VISUALS: 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".
FLAVOR: Strawberry Passion Awareness.
TEXT: "The ancient Maori believed passion fruit was a powerful aphrodisiac. Hey, it couldn't hurt. Try Strawberry Passion Awareness."
VISUALS: 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.
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."
VISUALS: 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.
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."
VISUALS: Completely yellow, nothing but lemons.
MUSIC: 4/4, medium-fast tempo. Tabla drum pattern with mandolins (?) supporting Kate's (recognizable) "drum-talk" (?) -- the "digguh-dah, digguh-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).
FLAVOR: Citrus Consciousness.
TEXT: "This is what Citrus Consciousness can do to your tongue. Imagine what it can do for your soul."
VISUALS: 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.
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?"
VISUALS: 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.
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."
VISUALS: 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.
(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."
VISUALS: 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!"
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?"
VISUALS: Same as No. 09 above, but longer, and wide-screen.
MUSIC: Same as 09, only a longer re-mix.
II. 1995 commercials:
FLAVOR: Iced Tea/Inner Light (no specific flavors).
TEXT: "Some people like/hula dancing,/sitcoms,/drag racing,/ public television,/romance novels,/ice fishing,/body painting./Everybody gets thirsty differently."
VISUALS: A red and white stripes give the first part of the ad a kind of peppermint look; as part of the "new look" of these second-generation spots, non-fruit items, among them an acoustic guitar and a marble head of a Greek goddess, are thrown into the kaleidoscopic mix.
MUSIC: 4/4. Major key. Bass tabla cadence. Kate's backing vocals sing "Ah-wee-ay, ah-wee-oh, ah-wee-ay..." and are answered by Kate's main vocal (very clearly identifiable as Kate) singing some phrases that sound tantalizingly like words but which IED cannot decipher.
---------------------
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. (The music in No. 10 ["What If?"] is the same as in No. 9 ["Summer Solstice"].) With the addition of the new Iced Tea/Inner Light ad, we have a total of eleven Kate Bush ads, of which 10 contain distinct musics.
-- Andrew Marvick (IED)
S R I
"Hey! Hey! JUICE!"
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 1995 22:44:27 GMT
From: James Hogan <James@absfabs.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Cocteau Twins/Personal chat
Karen Wrote:
> I stand corrected! I wonder why they'd change musicians to go to UK with ads when Kate would probably get more general recognition than here?
Yes the Fruitopia adverts in the uk are most definiately the Cocteau Twins (Elizabeth Frazer being the lead singer). Why the Cocteau Twins ? They are one of the most successfull independant bands in the UK apart from of course the Smiths and are a favorite among students even today. Their music is unique and has be called among other things "etheral". No lyrics are printed and very few words can be made out, even so it can invoke many emotions. Even John Peel of Radio 1 fame, has admitted to being moved to tears on hearing "pearly dew drops drop", which made the top 40. Elizabeth Frazer who is a very private and shy was horrified of the thought that if the record had got any higher they would have been asked to appear! I have heard their music as background in many TV programs including the South Bank Show (I always find this strangely distrubing). Their music is very suited to the fruitopia image.
For more info visit the following web site:
www.evo.org/html/group/cocteautwins.htm (Just to see the amazing album covers!)
One of the best albums is "Treasure". They now release on fontana. I find like Kates music it takes a few plays before it gets to you in a big way.
James Marmite fan UK
From: Robb McCaffree <NSRJM@NURSEPO.MEDCTR.UCLA.EDU>
Date: 3 Jul
1995 05:12:00 GMT
Subject: Re: UK Fruitopia ads
Maybe that was Kate's doing: often an artist will agree to doing a commercial in another country, but prefer not to have it air in their country of origin. Look at all the artists (including Kate) who have a Japanese commercial to their credit but no UK or US equivalent.
--Robb
From: Buffalohead <nsrjm@nursepo.medctr.ucla.edu>
Date: 13 Aug
1995 05:04:09 GMT
Subject: 'EW' says "ew" to Fruitopia ads
Not that it's any great reflection on Kate's scoring, but...the most recent edition of Entertainment Weekly (with singer Selena on the cover) lists a few commercials that they like...and then a couple that they really dislike. Fruitopia fell into the latter category, mostly due, they said, to the irony of a mega-corp like Coca-cola positioning repackaged fruit juice in such a retro, 'love the planet' kind of way.
Of Kate's music, there was only a passing reference, and it was not flattering...but it wasn't incendiary either. They called the scoring 'quasi-new age.'
I kinda liked the kaleidoscope effect myself, though a picture of Kate swimming through the stuff would've been preferred. Actually, was any image or mention of Fruitopia actually necessary? Couldn't they've just launched a massive campaign to promote Kate to the Americas? :-)
Robb(uffalohead)
From: mty027@coventry.ac.uk (Andy Semple)
Date: 15 Aug 1995 09:43:51
+0100
Subject: Fruitopia
I've seen 2 adverts on the TV and would agree certainly that one is the Cocteau Twins, the other one I'm not so sure about.
I'm pretty certain that the one I've seen at the cinema a number of times is Kate, the one I've seen is the Kaleidoscope one.Can anyone verify that this is Kate or not?I would be very surprised if it wasn't Kate.
By the way Sean Mayes the co-author of the visual documentary book has just recently died, there was a small obituary in the latest Q magazine(the one with Mozza on the front).
-- Andy Semple
From: jamezh@ix.netcom.com (James Hoover )
Date: 20 Sep 1995 17:30:08
GMT
Subject: Re: Total Kate-Opia Integration
lightning1@aol.com wrote:
<<I like the "gaffa" explanation on the tape's label. ;-)
<There is 5 Points for that one! What else is there interesting on the
Label????
If you turn the label upside down, toward the top of the upside down label and to the right of the big circle you can see the KT + Female symbol. Cool!
I have a question which all the Fruitopia adds brought to mind while I was watching the tape. The Line, the Cross, and the Curve and The Red Shoes CD cover both contain images of fruit, lots of it.
Did this inspire the Fruitopia people to contact Kate, or was Kate inspired to include this imagery because of her work for Fruitopia, or is it a happy case of synchronicity (the meaningful connection of events [seemingly] unrelated in cause)?
Date: Fri, 22 Sep 1995 18:00:10 -0100
From: Wieland Willker <willker@chemie.uni-bremen.de<
Subject: Fruitopia on the WWW
Hello friends, for all those poor(lucky?) without WWW access.
Besides Click3x
http://www.click3x.com/spots/fruitopia.htm
http://www.click3x.com/spots/fruitopia95.htm
and John Lights LH-tape page:
http://delcom.accsyst.com/brian/kate.htm
I found with some search tools:
1. http://www.wolfe.net/~reboot/faq.htm#8
Why do you dislike Fruitopia sodas?
Partly because of the doofy ads and mostly because of that nuts-o chick Doctress Fruitopia on USENET. [??]
2. http://pcd.stanford.edu/~mogens/snapple-comments-old.htm
From: Christian
Date: 21. Sep 94 18:18
What's with Fruitopia??? Those ads get in your brain and won't let go. Cloying and sticky brain memes that suck...sugarwater.
3. http://totalny.com/daily/daily8 29.htm
TUESDAY, AUGUST 29
TRAVELLING FRUITOPIA
Until recently, I thought that Fruitopia simply had scary flashback commercials and cool vending machines that provided glass bottles of annoyingly titled juice. However, I clearly underestimated them. They ALSO have a multicolored bus that's touring the nation this summer; a bus that houses the travelling Fruitopia Show. I was lucky enough to catch it here in New York.
Play it Fruitopia man!
After the end of this promotional show, I spoke with Jim Hinde, singer for the Fruitopia tour (after he handed out complimentary bottles of "Fruit Generation"). I wanted to know if he sang original lyrics or if his songs had a special Fruitopia angle to them.
"This show is basically run concurrent, but by itself in relation to the drink." said Jim. "I haven't changed any lyrics to my songs, and none of it is based on Fruitopia, does that make sense?"
THE BEST PRODUCTS OF 1994
Fruitopia
"Citrus Consciousness" and "Strawberry Passion Awareness" hardly sound like Coca-Cola products. But when the Atlanta soft-drink maker introduced these and other flavors in its new line of Minute Maid Fruitopia drinks last summer, thirsty consumers could not get enough of the noncarbonated, fruit-based beverages. With catchy advertising and Coke's distribution muscle behind it, Fruitopia has wasted no time grabbing a sizable share of the Snapple-led fruit-drink market, like a parched softball player after a hot game.
5. http://www.earthlink.net/~lcurreri/Lee.htm
Lee Curreri - COMPOSER-PRODUCER
FRUITOPIA (with composer Jon Hassell) 1 radio spot - Chiat/Day
6. http://www.armory.com/~crisper/Scorch/Musings/fruitopia
Fruitopia officially symbolizes everything in the universe that makes loyal Scorched Earth Party members psychitically violent. We have no problem with the ultimate coopting of counterculture values by corporate America. We're all for it. However, in doing so, we are being bombarded with the most unpleasant anti-hideous violence propaganda imaginable.
You know how the commercials go. Psychedelic fruit, throbbing and pulsing rhythmically across the screen. Peaceful, lulling, psyche-penetrating music. Then messages flash on the screen, like:
Everything should be...
Perfect and beautiful and nice...
And it
will be...
Because you are so enlightened...
Because you drink...
Raspberry Anti-homophobia Ripple
...
This must stop. ....
- Jeff Vogel Scorched Earth Party
7. http://www.crl.com/~moj/Fruitopia/fruit.htm
Words of wisdom found on bottles of Fruitopia(tm)
Fruit Integration
The person next to you
loves you very much.
Please share your
Fruit Integration
with him/her.
The Grape Beyond
Things that are still right in the cosmos:
The perfection of a circle,
Beethoven's 9th,
white t-shirts,
and baseball.
Raspberry Psychic Lemonade
There is a wonderful person inside you
who is dying to get out.
Please drink Raspberry Psychic Lemonade
and free your spirit!
Strawberry Passion Awareness
If you can't judge a fruit
by the color of its skin,
how can you
judge a person
by theirs?
Tangerine Wavelength
find the line
between
joy and bliss.
Apple Raspberry Embrace
When in doubt,
HUG!
Tropical Consideration
War isn't.
Peace will be.
Tropical Consideration is.
8. http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~eclectic/o/misc/magic-code.htm
Chaos is ...
Chaos is really just another kind of order. Or at least, I think it said something like that in a Fruitopia commercial.
*** END ***
Date: Sun, 17 Sep 1995 18:50:05 -0100
From:
willker@chemie.uni-bremen.de (Wieland Willker)
Subject: Fruitopia - New
Competition?
Hello friends,
Hey, hey - juice!
Some days ago I received the lovehounds tape from Lightning, John and it was a revelation! The Fruitopia adds are so cool. I haven't seen them before. The music is fantastic! It fits so perfectly to the colourful pictures. It's great! We have new KaTe here! I made a 30 min audio tape from it, repeating all the adds 5 times. I love it! It's like a drug. I can listen to it for hours at work. - I'm so mad. Maybe they are simple in the making, but they sound so beautiful! Smash 'em Mr. Drukman!
Hey, hey - juice!
I'm pretty sure, these will never be officially released, so you have ultrarare KaTe here! The best music IMHO is in "Summer solstice", "Fighting Fruit" (the best! "hey, hey - juice", her voice, oh god!) and "Skin".
Hey, hey - juice!
Total fruit integration! I go for it!
Now:
1. what are the complete words from "what if?"
2. what do the spoken words in the japanese "summer solstice" mean?
And, a new KBC competition (maybe):
3. What is Kate singing in the Ice tea spot?
I think it's not "We let the weirdness in"?
To me it sounds like "A honey on a saturday" :-)
Thank you Andrew, Karen and John for this tape.
S R I , more than ever!
Best wishes
Wieland
From: IEDSRI@aol.com
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 1995 14:02:39 -0400
Subject: Enthusiasm
< From: willker@chemie.uni-bremen.de (Wieland Willker)
<
Subject: Fruitopia - New Competition?
Now THAT's the kind of posting we need more of in Love-Hounds!
-- Andrew Marvick (IED)
S R I
From: kln@a.crl.com
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 1995 14:13:10 -0800
Subject: Fruitopia!
Hi Esther,
Since you seem to have missed the past year and a half of discussion on rec.music.gaffa, here's the scoop on Fruitopia:
Kate did at least 12 pieces of music for the Fruitopia campaign. Eleven confirmed pieces have been aired in the U.S. as part of a massive commercial campaign. I believe eleven of these are available in video form on the Total Tape Integration video, circulated free this summer within the rec.music.gaffa community. If you are interested, post a polite request on r.m.g and I'm sure someone will be happy to make you a copy. There are PAL copies circulating in Europe. It's free, all you have to do is supply a blank and pay postage.
Fruitopia has two 60-second ads which are intended to run in theatres. One of them is on the tape; the other is available for downloading from the people who created the whole campaign, at the Click3X web site. I don't have the web address right here, but you can find it in a Yahoo search. It is a darned big file (6 MB), so be prepared.
The UK campaign for some reason added a spot with Liz the magnificent singing, which I've only seen once in the U.S., and she didn't seem to be wailing at all, so there may be TWO Liz spots.
So that's the scoop. We've spent the past two summers in an intesive Fruitopia watch as we tried to capture the videos on tape -- people were posting what shows Fruitopia was sponsoring (such as Star Trek DS9) and we'd man the VCRs, trying to capture those babies during commercial breaks. Our own IED, guardian of the sacred faith, was able to get most of the Fruitopia ads.
It seems like Fruitopia is going to add new flavors, so maybe more Kate music will surface. In the Iced Tea campaign they re-used some of the earlier pieces, so they may be out of stuff.
Later, Karen
Back
to the Moments Table of Contents
Written by Love-Hounds
compiled and edited
by
Wieland Willker
August 1995