The sight of a strange blue-grey crazy frog with a helmet and goggles,
revving up an imaginary motorbike while making an infuriating "ding
ding dididing" noise, is familiar to much of the country.
In fact to most of them it's too familiar... far, far too familiar.
Adverts for the Crazy Frog mobile phone ringtone have played
hundreds of times on certain TV channels over the past few weeks; it
has earned an estimated £10m, and according to the company selling
it, is the most successful ringtone in the world. Now a dance mix
has been recorded and played on Chris Moyles's Radio 1 breakfast
show.
That crazy frog is irritating to the point of distraction and back again.
And yet at the same time, it's strangely compelling.
But it's a frustration not completely shared by Daniel Malmedahl, a
24-year-old computer components salesman from Gothenburg, Sweden.
"It's driving people to distraction?" he says. "Is that a
compliment?"
It was Daniel who, as a 17-year-old in 1997, sat down in front of
his computer and recorded himself imitating his friends' souped-up
mopeds. Although he didn't know it at the time, his funny little
recording would one day become the Crazy Frog.
