Talk:Flat Eric

Flat Eric was a yellow puppet character seen in a series of commercials for LEVI'S that advertised their "STA-PREST One Crease Denim Clothing". In the commercials, Flat Eric would ride with his friend Angel (played by Phillipe Petit) around California, avoiding the Police as a wanted criminal.

The character was based on a design by French artist Mr. Oizo (aka Quentin Dupieux). Mr Oizo created had built a character called Stephane. Stephene, was almost identical to Flat Eric - the only differance was Stephene had ears and his hands were not moveable. Stephene had appeared in some earlier short films by Mr. Oizo, and had a small kind of cult following in the the UK and France.

The character Flat Eric was called Eric because Mr Oizo (the creator) and the people at Levis' ad agency felt it was a more "international name" rather than the character's original French name Stephane.

The original concepts for the ad was to have Eric's head get run over by a car giving him a flat head. That idea was never used but the name Flat Eric stuck.

LEVI'S got The Jim Henson Company to build Flat Eric based on the original design of Stephane (with some minor changes and upgrades). On working with the Henson Workshop to build the puppet, Mr Oizo said, "When they first made him he looked too much like Kermit. He had a rounded body which Flat Eric isn't supposed to have. It took 15 days to make him but the second puppet was too tall - he was like a small child and he wasn't funny. Flat Eric has to be little and small to be laughable, so I said no to number two. The third or fourth time he was just about right. He had to be redesigned several times before he created the same mood and feeling that I had with my first, original puppet Stephane."

Mr Oizo directed all the Flat Eric commercials and performed the music for the ads too (with his songs "Flat Beat" and "Monday Massacre").

Flat Eric was also featured in Mr. Oizo's music video for "Flat Beat", and he also appeared as a prop in first season of the 2001-2003 original BBC comedy The Office.

The LEVI'S ads took three days to shoot. The original short films made with Stephane cost around 15,000 francs to produce. The two Levis ads cost around two or three million each. Flat Eric still has a kind og cult following in parts of Europe to this day. The rights to Flat Eric are retianed by Mr. Oizo.