Compiled by Janet Hamilton
From the OrigamiUSA Newsletter Issue 69, June 2000
Anyone who has folded paper in public knows that origami attracts attention. This fact has not been lost on companies trying to attract attention to their products! Here is a list of the many sightings of origami in television advertising.
Near the end of a Microsoft commercial showing the Power of Windows95 was a clip of paper airplane folding software.
A TV commercial for a Dodge car sale has a dollar bill folding itself into the shape of a car.
Two commercials in the U.S. for Hershey's Nuggets were developed by the advertising company Ogilvy and Mather. The first commercial involved the foil wrapper coming off the candy and folding itself into a peacock, a dinosaur, and finally a frog. The title of the commercial is "In search of Mr. Right" and the script is "We run into big egos (peacock), small minds (dinosaur), and not a single prince charming (frog)." A detailed analysis of the commercial can also be found in the May/June 1997 issue of Peafowl Newsletter. The second commercial showed a gold foil wrapper fold itself into a large diamond, a winged dragon, a sword, a castle, and finally wrap itself into the nugget shape.
A Little Caesar’s pizza ad had a the customer ask a goofy pizza clerk what he was to do with a pizza box. The pizza clerk quickly manipulated the box into a pterodactyl and replied, "Have you ever heard of origami?" Little Caesars did hand out, upon request, an instruction sheet on how to fold your own 'origami pterodactyl" (flapping bird), but from a square of paper, not a pizza box. images/pterodactyl-001.png images/pterodactyl-002.png images/pterodactyl-003.png images/pterodactyl-004.png
About August/September 1998 a Nationwide Building Society TV ad included 3 traditional flapping birds made of graph paper flying across the screen. This ad was spotted in Germany and the UK.
NBC TV had a station identification spot in which the NBC logo "folded" itself into a peacock. Another station identification spot shows hands creating an origami peacock and when the feathers fan out it turns into the NBC peacock logo.
During the opening credits to a show about household topics, a 30-40 second intro shows a busy mom rushing through the house, making breakfast, vacuuming, etc. Eventually, she grabs a piece of paper from the kitchen counter and on her way through the house (in rapid motion no less) folds it into an Origami swan, which she sails into a crying baby's playpen.
A TV commercial for a hospital in Hawaii shows a little girl using a "fortune teller." By the end of the commercial she's grown up and her daughter is using the fortune teller instead.
A commercial shown on Discovery Channel in August 1998 advertising Shark Week included a boy folding paper and then showing off a mobile of origami sharks.
September/October 1998, a Eurostar TV (UK) ad showed a young boy sitting at a table folding, with various models visible on the table.
A commercial on Dutch television (November 1998) for the Conimex brand of Japanese spices shows an animation of a piece of yellow paper folding itself into what appears to be a cow. After that, another piece of paper folds itself into the package of the product.
An origami animation was shown on British Television, ITV3, to advertise the Elections, and shows a glossy leaflet posted through a letterbox. It falls gracefully to the floor, whereupon it begins folding itself into various origami models: A Flower, a Train, a Factory, and a Chicken, representing governmental agenda items such as Transport and Industry. Ad company Loose Moose commissioned Rick Beech to work on the spot, along with a team of animators and model-makers from Artem, a special effects company in London.
In a commercial for Wheat Thins, the announcer says "origami wheat thins" as the little cracker folds into a crane.
