Mountain

Mountain was a large-scale advertising film created in 2003 for Sony Corporation's PlayStation 2 video-game console. It was developed by TBWA London as part of the wider “Fun, Anyone?” campaign, an initiative intended to broaden PlayStation 2's appeal beyond its established young male audience and make the console more relevant to families and children. Rather than showing gameplay or focusing on technical specifications, Mountain used an extravagant visual metaphor for competition and collective entertainment. The 60-second commercial opens with a solitary man positioned on a skyscraper overlooking an urban environment. Shirley Temple's recording of “De Gospel Train” then accompanies scenes of a huge Brazilian crowd rushing through the streets and forming a steep mound of human bodies. Participants scramble over one another to reach the summit. Whoever reaches the top briefly celebrates before being displaced by the other climbers, turning the familiar “king of the mountain” game into a spectacle of constant, playful competition. The final image pulls back to reveal the scale of the human structure before introducing the “Fun, Anyone?” line and the PlayStation 2 message, “Play the world online.” Frank Budgen directed the commercial for Gorgeous Enterprises. It was filmed in Rio de Janeiro during a six-day production involving more than 1,500 recruited extras, including stunt performers, gymnasts and circus artists. Production teams limited the number of people on set at any one time, while carefully positioned cameras and a helicopter-mounted camera captured the city, crowd movement and climbers. The Mill handled post-production, using set extensions, crowd duplication and computer-generated imagery for the extreme wide shots. MASSIVE crowd-simulation software was used to generate approximately 146,000 digital characters with individualized behavior patterns, making the commercial an important showcase for large-scale digital crowd work at the time. Mountain premiered on 13 November 2003 in 30 countries across Europe and Asia as both a television and cinema commercial. It was supported by a poster campaign that ran through 24 December, with particularly extensive cinema and outdoor placements in Germany. The commercial continued to appear in shorter and longer edits during 2004. The broader Christmas-period “Fun, Anyone?” campaign had a reported production and media budget of £5 million across markets, although that figure applied to the campaign activity rather than necessarily to Mountain alone. The advertisement became one of the most highly recognized commercials of its period. It received more than 40 awards and nominations in advertising and television competitions and was reportedly the second-most-awarded commercial of 2004. At the BTAA Craft Awards it was shortlisted in ten categories and won six. At the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival it won the Film Grand Prix and a Gold award for music. Its success helped TBWA and Sony present PlayStation 2 as a product associated with inclusive, family-friendly fun rather than only with a narrowly defined male gaming audience. Reference material also attributes a rise in PlayStation 2's console-market share from 74% to 77% during the relevant period and stronger-than-expected 2003 Christmas sales partly to the attention generated by the campaign. Mountain was praised for the scale and precision of its execution, but some advertising commentators argued that its connection to video games was indirect and that the production spectacle risked overshadowing the product. Even with that criticism, the commercial became a notable example of early-2000s high-concept game advertising and of the use of digital crowd replication in live-action commercials. It is best understood not as a standalone consumer brand, but as a campaign asset and advertising work created to support the PlayStation 2.

Mountain emerged from Sony and TBWA's effort to reposition the PlayStation 2 for a broader audience in 2003. Earlier PlayStation 2 marketing had often used dark, mysterious and highly stylized imagery aimed mainly at young adult men. Although that approach had supported a strong launch and substantial market share, TBWA Worldwide began developing a new group of executions under the “Fun, Anyone?” platform to reach families and younger viewers. Several spots in the platform used animation or surreal visual ideas, but the Christmas brief for Mountain called for a depiction of people competing to be the best while conveying the worldwide, communal character of PlayStation play. The creative team initially considered other approaches before settling on a gigantic version of the traditional “king of the mountain” game. The concept was turned into a live-action production directed by Frank Budgen, whose earlier work with Gorgeous Enterprises had earned major advertising recognition. Filming took place in Rio de Janeiro over six days. Zohar International helped recruit more than 1,500 extras, among them approximately 50 stunt performers, gymnasts and circus performers. The production used multiple cameras to capture the streets, buildings and crowd action. For the concluding aerial view, trained performers ran and climbed a roughly 20-foot cone installed on top of the Rio Sul Center, allowing the advertisement to combine a real physical centerpiece with digital enlargement. The Mill was responsible for post-production. Much of the location material was photographed in-camera, but the scale of the crowd required duplication, set extension and computer-generated work. The studio used MASSIVE, a crowd-animation system associated at the time with large visual-effects productions. Mountain was The Mill's first project using the software, and artist Jordi Bares created approximately 146,000 digital characters with distinct behavioral patterns. This combination of practical performance, aerial photography and digital crowd replication made the film appear considerably larger than the number of performers who could physically occupy the set. The 60-second spot launched on 13 November 2003 in 30 countries in Europe and Asia. A poster campaign ran from the launch date until 24 December, while television and cinema placements used several edits, including a 42-second cinema version in Germany and 10-, 30- and 60-second television versions during 2004. The campaign's reported £5 million budget covered production and media purchases across markets during the 2003 Christmas period. Despite its British advertising origins, reference material indicates that the commercial had not aired in mainland Britain by July 2004. Mountain's reception was unusually strong for a console commercial. It collected more than 40 awards and nominations, won six BTAA Craft Awards and received the Film Grand Prix at Cannes Lions, alongside a Gold award recognizing its use of Shirley Temple's “De Gospel Train.” The jury emphasized the combination of a simple idea and an enormous execution. The work also became a subject of debate: supporters regarded it as memorable advertising art, while critics argued that the human mountain communicated spectacle more clearly than it communicated gaming. Commercially, the work supported TBWA's objective of widening PlayStation 2's demographic reach. Reference material links the campaign to stronger-than-expected Christmas sales and an increase in the console's share of the video-game market from 74% to 77% during the relevant period. TBWA continued the “Fun, Anyone?” platform through 2004. Mountain also had a technical afterlife: Jordi Bares later presented a masterclass on artificial-intelligence-based crowd animation, and Budgen subsequently directed advertising for Microsoft's Xbox 360. The advertisement itself was a time-limited campaign work rather than an enduring product line, but it remains associated with PlayStation 2's early-2000s brand expansion and with the development of digital crowd techniques in commercial filmmaking.

• 2004

  Awards recognition

  [1]Mountain (advertisement)en.wikipedia.org

  Mountain won the Cannes Lions Film Grand Prix and received extensive recognition at advertising and television craft awards.

• 2004

  Continued campaign use

  [1]Mountain (advertisement)en.wikipedia.org

  The commercial continued to run in multiple television lengths during 2004 as TBWA maintained the wider Fun, Anyone? campaign.

• 2003

  Development within Fun, Anyone?

  [1]Mountain (advertisement)en.wikipedia.org

  TBWA developed Mountain as part of Sony's effort to make PlayStation 2 advertising more gender-neutral and appealing to families and younger audiences.

• 2003

  Rio de Janeiro production

  [1]Mountain (advertisement)en.wikipedia.org

  Frank Budgen directed a six-day shoot involving recruited extras, specialist performers, multiple cameras and an aerial finale built around a large cone on the Rio Sul Center.

• 2003

  International premiere

  [1]Mountain (advertisement)en.wikipedia.org

  The 60-second television and cinema commercial premiered on 13 November in 30 countries across Europe and Asia.

A cinematic, family-oriented PlayStation 2 advertisement using spectacle, humor and a metaphor for friendly competition to expand the console's appeal.

• Television and cinema advertisement · 2003

  Mountain

  A 60-second Sony PlayStation 2 commercial showing a Brazilian crowd forming a human mountain in a comic and competitive struggle to reach its summit. The live-action footage was expanded through digital crowd replication, limited CGI and set extensions. Shorter 10-, 30- and 42-second edits were also used in television and cinema placements.

• Advertising campaign platform · 2003

  Fun, Anyone?

  A PlayStation 2 campaign platform created to broaden the console's audience beyond its earlier young-male positioning. Mountain was one of several executions under the platform and emphasized shared enjoyment, accessible competition and the social scale of the PlayStation community.

• 2003Fun, Anyone?

  Europe · Asia

  Sony and TBWA used a series of family-friendly PlayStation 2 advertisements, including Mountain, to expand the console's appeal and support the 2003 Christmas selling season.

  Outcome. The campaign received substantial public and professional attention and was associated in reference material with stronger-than-expected Christmas sales and an increase in PlayStation 2 market share from 74% to 77%.

  Source

• 2003

  Broaden PlayStation 2's target audienceStrategy

  Background

  Earlier PlayStation 2 advertising had primarily addressed young adult men, while Sony and TBWA sought additional growth among families and younger consumers.

  Action taken

  The agencies commissioned more gender-neutral and family-oriented executions under the Fun, Anyone? platform, including Mountain.

  Aftermath

  The campaign widened the perceived demographic reach of PlayStation 2 and generated substantial advertising recognition.

  Source

• 2021.07.01

  MOUNTAIN adds OBS Studio controls integration to Base Camp[2]MOUNTAIN 为 Base Camp 添加 OBS Studio 控制集成hartware.de

  MOUNTAIN added OBS Studio integration to its Base Camp management software, allowing users to set up custom key bindings for OBS Studio functions.

• 2020.08.05

  Reported2020.08.05

  Mountain announces the Makalu 67 gaming mouse[3]Mountain 宣布推出 Makalu 67 电竞滑鼠kitguru.net

  Mountain introduced the Makalu 67 gaming mouse and said it was expected to release in October at a price of $59.99/€59.99; the article does not report that the mouse had already gone on sale.

Read more

1. 1Mountain (advertisement)en.wikipedia.org
2. 2MOUNTAIN 为 Base Camp 添加 OBS Studio 控制集成hartware.de
3. 3Mountain 宣布推出 Makalu 67 电竞滑鼠kitguru.net