"Women want to have sex with him, men want to be him."
—Adam Higginbotham, editor of The Face3
Flat Eric is so cool, he even has a cult following: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Heights/5617/. He was created by Janet Knechtel, from Jim Henson's Muppets team.1 The three Levi's ads that Flat Eric starred in were directed by Mr. Oizo, French electronica artiste extraordinaire, and the background music is his song "Flat Beat." Mr. Oizo was asked to do the initial ad after a copy of the video he made for his second EP turned up at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Levi's advertising agency.1 Flat Eric also stars in the music video of "Flat Beat," wherein he dances muppetly, pushes some buttons, and signs a form.
Flat Eric is a down-to-Earth kinda guy. Born on March 20, and standing only 2' tall, he smokes sausages instead of cigars (he's flammable) and drinks Wizz exclusively. In an interview with Johnny Davis of The Face (March 30, 1999):2
JD: What is happiness?
FE: An empty milkshake carton.
[...]
JD: Hmmm. What about the picture of the female cop attached to your car's sun visor?
FE: If you look carefully you'll notice she's wearing only one glove. Black. Left hand. It's a sexual thing.
[...]
JD: Now that you're a household name, have the work offers been flooding in?
FE: In my favourite film, Paint Your Wagon, Lee Marvin sings, "I Was Born Under a Wandering Star." The song became a huge hit and some years afterwards he was asked why he had never recorded another song. He replied, "There's an old saying in the West. 'If you flick a dime up into the air, pull out your six shooter, fire and you hit it. Don't try it again.' "
In the Levi's ads, the puppet is worked by three puppeteers who are in the back seat of the car. He is modeled after a creation of Mr. Oizo's, a puppet named Stephan. Flat Eric is so named because his head is flat: one of the original concepts for the first ad was to have his head get ran over by a car, flattening it. The idea didn't stay, but the name did.4
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References:
1: No strings attached: http://www.guardian.co.uk/eric/Story/0,2763,209720,00.html
2: 60 seconds in the head of Flat Eric: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,3846505,00.html
3: Is Flat Eric an earner?: http://www.guardian.co.uk/eric/Story/0,2763,209713,00.html
4: Sir Beavis: http://www.sirbeavis.com/eric.php