Flat Eric
Flat Eric is a yellow bipedal puppet which became an international style icon in 1999. The brainchild of French multimedia artist Quentin Dupieux and built by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (the originators of the Muppets), Flat Eric gained great fame throughout Europe as the star of a series of television commercials (eleven in all) for Levi’s Sta-Prest Jeans. He appeared not only in television ads but also as a stuffed toy (in various sizes), in print ads for Levi’s, as an image on buttons and baseball caps and on various other memorabilia. “Flat Beat”, a dance track centered around the mystique of Flat, by Dupieux (using the stage name Mr Oizo), was released in March 1999 and promptly reached number one in the U.K. pop charts on 29 March 1999 and stayed there for two weeks; Flat also featured prominently in the music video for “Flat Beat”. Flat graced the cover of the U.K. magazine Heat over the headline “How we fell for a two foot nylon thing” on 3 April 1999. The Independent (London) deemed him “the advertising story of the year” in October 1999.[1] While Flat Eric was featured in Levi's advertisements across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, he never broke through in the United States, yet he was seen in the stands during the internationally televised Boston Red Sox/L.A. Angels American League Baseball Division Series, impersonating a “Rally Monkey”, the Angels' team mascot, at Angel Stadium, in September 2004.
External links
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/299803.stm "Flat Eric's cruise to the top", BBC News
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19991001/ai_n14277136 "Flat Eric is dead. Long live Flat Eric" The Independent (London)
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Heights/5617/index2.html The Cult of Flat Eric, fan website
http://repcred.com/music/flat-eric Website with the eleven television commercials
http://www.guardian.co.uk/eric/ "The Flat Eric Phenomenon", Special Reports on Flat, The Guardian (London)