Taylor Swift in scrambled eggs.

Pareidolia is the psychological phenomenon whereby random images are perceived as being something more significant. Or, in less bookish terms, its when people swear up and down on a stack of bibles that they see the Virgin Mary on a bran flake or Elvis in a sweat stain.

MTV’s On-Air Design department took this phenomenon and adapted it to its teen audience for a set of idents titled Pareidolia, promoting its new block of morning music video programming, AMtv.

Elvis and religious icons are a bit passé for today’s teen, however, which is why MTV turned to modern-day pop star idolatry. Lil Wayne’s face is slowly revealed in a cascade of syrup on pancakes; Rihanna’s visage is etched in burnt toast; Green Day are chiseled into cream cheese; Eminem is a coffee stain and Taylor Swift is teased out of scrambled eggs.

Lil’ Wayne on pancakes.

“Kids these days put these artists on such a high pedestal,” says director Crobin of the concept. “I’m not saying you could compare them to Jesus, but they have their fans!”

The idents are the second series in an overall package of four, all revolving around a breakfast theme to coincide with the A.M. programming. Shot over the course of two days, most of the idents were shot in camera with the exception of the Rihanna and Lil’ Wayne spots, which are CGI. For Green Day, Eminem and Taylor Swift, the team at MTV brought in stylists Michael Lawrence and Ben Kress.

“The Green Day one was interesting because it was really hard for Michael to get their faces on without it looking too sculpted,” explains Crobin. “We were trying to get it to look more like it was a knife that swiped the cream cheese, so that one took a little more back and forth than say the scrambled eggs. Ben, who tackled the eggs, nailed it right it way. He built it at home and brought it to the set that day for us.

Green Day in cream cheese.

“One of our first challenges was finding the right foods that we can incorporate the images in without it looking too fake or photoshopped,” Crobin continues. “With Taylor Swift the image we referenced was her album cover. She has beautiful, flowing curly hair and it just made sense for us to use scrambled eggs with her.”

The second challenge, according to design director David McElwaine, was clearing the images and music bytes with each label’s music and talent department.

“It helps having the artists’ music playing once they’re revealed, like with the Rihanna or Taylor Swift idents,” says Crobin. “But we didn’t have access to Eminem or Lil’ Wayne so we ended up taking a clip from MTV News of [host] Sway talking about them and  playing it in the background as if the viewer were watching TV in the morning.”

Rihanna on toast.

In the end, it was following that morning theme that added to the ident’s success. According to McElwaine, both MTV and the artists themselves have praised the idents and there’s a chance that more are in the pipeline.

“This is not a case of image for image sake. The idents play into the timing of when you’re going to view them,” says McElwaine. “They have a morning sensibility: the sun, the light factor and the music element. We feel like they’re successful on that level. You wouldn’t necessarily play them at night, and to have them timed at a particular time of the day is quite unique.”

To view “Paredolia” visit Boards’ screening room, here.

www.mtvmusic.com/featured/am_tv