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Crazy Frog is the marketing title of a ring tone based on The Annoying Thing, a computer animation created by Erik Wernquist. The animation was originally created to accompany a sound effect produced by Daniel Malmedahl whilst attempting to imitate the sound of a two-stroke moped engine.

Description

The Annoying Thing is an anthropomorphic amphibian, who wears only a white motorcycle helmet with the chinstrap unfastened, a leather jacket, and goggles. His toes are webbed, and the iris of one eye is significantly larger than the other.

The character imitates the hand movements required to rotate the twistgrip controls of a motorcycle while making the sound of an engine ignition. As the imaginary engine starts, the character begins to levitate as exhaust fumes are discharged from his body. The character then disappears into the distance at high speed.

Origin

In 1997, 17 year old Swede Daniel Malmedahl had a serious interest in imitating the sounds produced by different internal combustion engines. When friends heard Daniel's impressions, they immediately identified the comedic qualities of his talent and posted a recording of Daniel in action to a website. Soon, a researcher for a Swedish television programme found the recording and persuaded Daniel to perform the sound live on their show.

From there, Daniel's recording began appearing on peer to peer file sharing networks and websites under the filename "2TAKTARE.MP3" ("2taktare" being Swedish for "2-stroke").

The sound effect was quickly incorporated into Flash animations that spread virally over the internet. The most notable example was an "Insanity test", which required test subjects to keep a straight face while staring at a picture of a Formula 1 car and listening to the sound effect, "If you start laughing consider yourself legally insane", test subjects were informed.

The Insanity Test can still be viewed at the Internet Archive, here.

In 2003, when fellow Swede Erik Wernquist encountered the sound effect, he was inspired to create the 3D animation The Annoying Thing to accompany it using the popular lightwave 3d modeling application. The animation was a popular attraction at Erik's website, but the sound was only credited to Anonymous.

Eventually, word reached Daniel that his sound effect was in use in a well-known animation, he contacted Erik, apparently giving an impromptu performance to confirm his claims. Erik was convinced, and gave due credit to Daniel for his creation.

Ringtone

In 2004, the Germany based Jamba! group (ultimately owned by Verisign) licensed the animation and sound for distribution as a mobile phone ringtone. Jamba!, trading under names such as Jamster!, RingtoneKing, and others, accompanied the release of the ringtone with a barrage of television, internet, radio and print advertising, making it the most recognisable commercially available ringtone in the United Kingdom. Jamba! decided to market the ringtone as The Crazy Frog rather than the existing title.

Jamba! have earnt an estimated £14 million from the ringtone (source), making it the most commercially successful ringtone of all time. Attempting to repeat the Frog's success, Jamba! commissioned new animated creature ringtones, Sweety the Chick and Nessy the Dragon.

Controversy

Advertising

In February 2005, a number of complaints were submitted to the United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority regarding Jamba!'s advertising campaign, complaining that Crazy Frog appeared to have genitalia. Some parents complained that this made inappropriate viewing for children, claiming that the commercial had prompted embarrassing questions. Complaints were also submitted about the frequency the advert appeared on television, up to twice an hour across most of the day (source). One person even claims that he started the torrent of complaints in the first place (source).

The ASA did not uphold the complaints, pointing out that the advert was already classified as inappropriate for airing during childrens' television programmes as it contained a premium rate telephone number, adding that it was for the broadcaster to decide how often an advert should be shown. However, Jamba! voluntarily censored the characters genital area in later broadcasts of its advertisements. The full adjudication is available online.

In April 2005, television viewers complained about misleading adverts produced by Jamba!, trading as Jamster! and RingtoneKing. Viewers were concerned that it was not made sufficiently clear that they were subscribing to a service, rather than paying a one-time fee for their ringtone. The complaints were upheld, the full adjudication is available online.

In May 2005, the ASA were inundated with new complaints by viewers regarding the continuous airing of the latest Crazy Frog advertisements. As the authority had already adjudicated on the matter and confirmed the matter was not within its remit, the unusual step was taken of adding a notice to their online and telephone complaints system informing viewers that Jamster! related complaints should be directed towards the broadcaster or the regulator, Ofcom. (source: 1, 2)

It has also been rumoured that other advertisers have made unofficial approaches to the TV companies asking for the banning of the Jamster! adverts as many people are so genuinely annoyed by them that they change channel whenever they are showing, meaning that other adverts are not seen either.

• Advertising characters
• Fictional frogs
• Fads
• Internet memes
• Web humor
• Jamster ringtones