Moving and moving words

Just in time for Cannes, MTV mobile from Sunrise and the advertising agency FCB Zurich are presenting an idea that could revolutionize the future of communication with SMS and other short messages. We all love smiley faces. The symbol, with its countless variations, is often used to express or illustrate a particular emotion. The smiling sun was created in 1963 by commercial artist Harvey Ball on behalf of the insurance company State Mutual Life Assurance. It was intended to improve the working atmosphere on badges. Around half a century after the launch of these emoticons, the next generation could now follow. The smileys of the future are presented under the name "MTV mobile Emography Project" and were invented in Zurich by the creative minds at the FCB Zurich advertising agency.

"The idea was to develop a gadget for our client MTV mobile from Sunrise Communications that could convey a fresh, likeable and innovative image to a young target group," explains Executive CD Dennis Lück at FCB Zurich. The result is a new Facebook app. This can be used to communicate notes in certain moods, visually adapted in correspondingly emotive fonts. Eight different alphabets with the basic emotions are available for the short messages: Curiosity, Surprise, Fear, Sadness, Contempt, Anger, Joy and Disgust. If I now want to send a short message in a very amorous mood, for example, I select the corresponding alphabet for "Happiness" on the app. If I enter the text, this message is then "written" with a kiss on a pane of glass. If I enter disgust or "Disgust ", the writing is formed by living maggots. Anger is represented by the traces of a hammer hitting a pane of glass. Sadness" is represented by the tears of a woman who blurs her mascara into black letters.

All of these letters have not only been translated graphically, but also into moving images according to their emotions. WirzFraefelPaal worked with the creative team at FCB Zurich to dramatize the most meaningful "scene" possible for each of the eight basic human emotions. These short impressions are delivered to the recipient of the message as opening credits within the video message on Facebook. The short films start automatically as an opener when the message is read. Then the letters animated from real images also begin to be written in moving images. WirzFraefelPaal Productions has realized over 500 film sequences for all letters in eight alphabets, as producer Stefan Fraefel explains. To create the "Ekel" letters with the maggots, there was first a "maggot casting" with four different breeds. For the chosen font, 4000 animals were then allowed to crawl in front of the camera. "These were then handed over to another destination in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act."

The sequence with the thousand kisses is said to have been more pleasant for the filmmakers. The new app is being promoted with a teaser film, which WirzFraefelPaal has also produced and which is set to be distributed across the global web in the near future. A case film with the making-of of the emotional alphabets can already be found on YouTube under "Emography". The Viacom company with MTV mobile is present in six countries in Europe. In each country, MTV mobile works with a different telecom provider. In Switzerland, this is Sunrise. With this innovation, this brand is not only demonstrating a great deal of expertise as the first Swiss provider of a special messaging service. It also provides the young target group with an effective tool that is guaranteed to be very popular with the MTV generation. Dennis Lück does not want to predict how long it will take for the idea to be stolen. Cristian Vaccariello, Senior Mar- com Manager Youth & Youth Segment at Sunrise Communications, is also not very interested in this question. "We are sure that users will be very creative with the Emography app."

Sunrise is not alone with the problem of copying. The electronic smiley in the form of ASCII characters has been around since 1982. Microsoft wanted to protect the corresponding rights in 2005, but was legally unsuccessful. (:-((.  

Andreas Panzeri