Gorillaz design BBC Olympic titles

The duo have created new animation and music for the marketing campaign and titles for the coverage, based upon the traditional Chinese folklore Journey to the West, which the pair recently staged.

The campaign will feature the characters of Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy using Olympic sports on their journey to Beijing and the Bird's Nest stadium. The sports represented include gymnastics, hammer, sprinting and diving.

The BBC wants to attract younger viewers to the Games and will use the campaign in promotional activity across TV, radio, online, mobile and interactive.

It will play throughout the Beijing Olympics programming via title sequences, in programme graphics and set design. A two minute sequence is being created that will be played out in full as well as 60, 50, 30, 20 and 10 second versions, which will be used for trails and titles.

“The idea is that you tell the entire story of Journey to the West in a two-minute opening sequence, which is basically them on their way to the Birds' Nest stadium," said Jamie Hewlett, whose credits include Tank Girl and BBC3's Phoo Action.

Jonathan Bramley, BBC Sport executive producer, who commissioned the campaign with head of marketing and communications Louisa Fyans, said: "This has been a really exciting collaboration - to work with such renowned artists as Jamie and Damon is a real plus for BBC Sport. Their treatment of the trail and titles will kick start our Olympic coverage in a really different, energetic way,"

BBC Sport Marketing worked with retained agency RKCR to develop the strategic direction and creative realisation of the idea. Red Bee Media produced the trails and title sequence with Zombie Flesheaters and Passion Pictures.

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