Orchestra Focuses on sound

But no, this is all in the name of art. Or at least in the name of creativity in the art of selling cars.

Late last year, a pair of American musicians – New York sound designer Bill Milbrodt and Hollywood movie composer Craig Richey – were commissioned to create the soundtrack for the latest European Ford Focus advertising campaign. Using instruments constructed entirely from the car itself.

They might have saved themselves some time by calling on the skills of any of the enterprising thieves whose handiwork is behind the thousands of cars that disappear every month from American streets.

But instead Milbrodt and Richey started with a fully-assembled spanking new Focus hatchback, straight off the production line.

``When we got it to the mechanic’s shop, it had less than a mile on the clock,’’ Milbrodt said.

``We took the doors and fenders off, but we had the body shell intact and we later cut out of that; the parts we wanted.’’

Over a period of weeks, Milbrodt and his team broke the car down into its components, and then reassembled them to create the musical instruments.

A total of 31 were built, each named for the part that seeded it; Rear Suspension Spike Fiddle, Transmission Case Cello-Dulcimer, Handheld Gear Tambourine, Clutch Guitar, Door Harp, Hatchback Kick Drum and the cheekily christened Fender Bass.

Some of the mutant creations are surprisingly attractive. And all are amazingly capable of producing beautiful sound.

The television commercial – shot at Universal Studios in Los Angeles; feature a light classical composition skilfully played by the orchestra, all of whom look wonderfully comfortable with their strange instruments.

The internet sites showing the ad are getting mass hits in what has turned into a very successful viral marketing operation for the giant carmaker; even before the television campaign started screening in the United Kingdom this week.

Car parts reconstructed into other objects have been a hit for other manufacturers as well, with one of the more memorable recent ones being Citroen’s transformer robot that danced up a storm; with the help of Justin Timberlake’s choreographer – and followed up with an ice-skating sequence.

And no car ad of any kind has come close to touching the Honda Accord campaign that used a domino effect of disassembled parts to kickstart each other into motion, culminating in the car ignition firing.

It reportedly took hundreds of muffed attempts before they eventually got it right (which may have been the inspiration for the ad’s tag line `don’t you love it when things just work’), but years later it still holds the crown as the cleverest piece of car advertising ever made.