squidpants

so I think an energy company is ripping off Royksopp. I saw this ad today from Areva, a French nuclear power conglomerate, and was immediately reminded of the (awesome) video for Royksopp's "Remind Me." Some shots are extremely similar, like the square chunk of land flying into the main chunk, which is pictured above, and the style and theme is very similar - 3/4 perspective, industrial-style drawings, a how-it-works format, labels, and so on. It seems too similar to be a coincidence - maybe the energy company hired the same person, or maybe they just ripped the Norwegians off. In the picture, the Royksopp video is on the left and the Areva ad on the right.

Here's the Royksopp video



And the Areva ad.

The Wikipedia article about Areva even mentions the ad: "AREVA has gained some fame after airing 3,000 cel-shaded animation television ad spots on over 32 international channels, including CNN. The ads explained how the generation and distribution of nuclear power works. The ads showcased the 1980s music of Funkytown."

I don’t recall exactly where I saw the ad video first - possibly Myspace or IMDB. I also put it on You Thought We Wouldn't Notice, a blog about this sort of thing, after a commenter suggested it.

UPDATE: Turns out the videos look the same because they were made by the same group, a French art collective called H5. Apparently Areva wanted to use the Royksopp song and they declined, so they used Lipps Inc's "Funkytown" instead.

H5 has done a lot of other cool stuff I've seen before, like the video for Super Furry Animals' "Juxtapozed With U," which they show at concerts, and "The Child" by Alex Gopher, a CD I have. Apparently they hang out with French techno guys like Alex Gopher, as they've also done things for Air and Etienne de Crecy.