This Japanese Ad With an 18-Year-Old Grandpa Has a Clever and Quite Beautiful Twist

This story about a young woman and an old man probably won’t end the way you think.

The duo sit and have a conversation about the elder’s health. His spirits are good, despite a few natural aches and pains. Then things take a turn for the weird, as the woman recalls their history together, dating back to 18 years prior.

As the dialogue continues down that dark path, the man recalls getting into regular fights, and she forgives him for causing trouble.

read more

ACUVUE "Illegible Signboard" (2016) 2:00 (Japan)

Japanese schoolchildren have an eyesight problem. Their eyesight has been steadily worsening. The question became how to increase awareness about the importance of good eyesight? ENJIN Inc, came up with a stunt to solve that problem. They created billboards that looked like eye charts with the letter gradually getting smaller at the end. They developed 35 different messages and placed them in and around schools as well as in shops and outdoors. These illegible signs helped raise awareness, and made a strong impression in school children. Simple and effective idea.

Kandenko – AgIC Circuit Marker (2016) 1:50 (Japan)

Kandenko - AgIC Circuit Marker (2016) 1:50 (Japan)
This product could sell itself, it’s a conductive ink pen, that is a circuit marker, how cool is that? Wait wait, it gets cooler! The team who created this ad will not only hypnotize you with the perfectly drawn lines that turn the lights on, but also they’ve cut the paper so they can pop up a little Lumino city-like city, right before your eyes. It’s so magical I forgive the twee soundtrack. Also, I’ll take an entire case of these pens, please.

Best Ad of 2016 That You've Never Seen? It's Japan's Weird, Wonderful 'Firefly Man'

A man who can’t keep the lights on for his family leaves home on a five-year quest, and returns as a human firefly who lights up his entire village. 

That is the bizarre, ultimately tragic plot of this “Firefly Man” ad for Ocedel Lighting in Japan. It won a silver in Film and a bronze in Film Craft last week at Cannes Lions, and before that, it was the Grande Film winner at this year’s Asia Pacific AdFest.

read more

Donald Trump Will Probably Love This Insane Ad Where He Rules (and Destroys) the World

The U.S. presidency is fine and all, but would Donald J. Trump stop there? Surely he would realize there’s a whole yuuuge world out there waiting to be dominated.

read more

Second Life Toys "Intro" (2016) 2:00 (Japan)

Lack of child organ donors is a worldwide problem, especially in Japan. But very few people are talking about it. There are 14,000 children in Japan waiting for organs, but only 300 receive transplants every year. To create awareness about this Togo Kida at Dentsu and a colleague created Second Life Toys. They took toys that were broken and no longer played with and gave them necessary transplants. The toys act as a representation of lives saved through organ transplants. Those who donate toys to the kids will receive a letter of thanks from the kids. So not only are you creating awareness, but you’re also giving toys to kids who could use a little happiness in their lives. What a great idea.
For more information, go to Second Life Toys.

Stuffed Animals Get Transplants in Adorable Campaign About Child Organ Donation

Imagine a plush rooster with a frog’s foot where its comb should be.

Such a creature now exists, thanks to a new campaign in Japan. To raise awareness of a shortage of child organ donors, Dentsu employee Akira Suzuki and a colleague created “Second Life Toys,” which hopes to resurrect worn-out stuffed animals by combining them with parts from other fuzzy beasts. 

read more

Koowho "Alcoho-Lock" (2015) 2:24 (Japan)

Well here’s a great idea that solves an actual problem. You know– the way advertising should. A lot of folks are drunk riding bicycles in Japan. To help prevent this, Grey Tokyo and Koowho created Alcoholock: a breathalyzer for your bike. More than that though, it’s connected via bluetooth to your smart phone. So if you’ve had one too many, the bike not only stays locked, but your phone alerts your loved ones so they can
yell at you convince you not to try and ride home, but to walk your bike home. If that person in your life refuses to take responsibility for their actions, a little walk of shame never hurts. Great idea, and hopefully it’ll save lives, too.

AINZ & TULIPE "Interactive shop window" 2:00 (Japan)

Case study time. Problem: Lots of non Japanese-speaking tourists visit Japan every year. One of the top three souvenirs they purchase is make up. How do you ensure they get the right product?
Through facial recognition technology. Apparently the interactive billboard can tell you are not from Japan and detect your language of preference.

Space Shower TV "Rock and Roll Panty" (2015) 1:00 (Japan)

Here’s a station ID for Japanese music channel Space Shower TV, featuring some rock and roll and panties.
Apparently they were inspired by a this quote from Stevie Ray Vaughan: “The sound pressure coming from the amplifier causes the hem of the pants to flutter.”

They set out to prove it using wind generated by RAWK. Seriously. Go to rocknroll-panty.jp to see more.

Far from just being your regular station ID, this also incorporates a game which can be played on a smart phone. When you tap in time to the rhythm on the screen a panty shot will appear. If you don’t tap in rhythm then a shot of a macho man appears. The users rhythms determine the outcome.

Project planning and production was done by dot by dot inc., the gigantic speaker was built by Invisible Design Lab, Taguchi Craft Ltd. and the
music is performed by the 3 piece rock band, KING BROTHERS. The panty presentations on top of the speaker are by the popular fashion model and
musician, Hikari Shiina.

Space Shower tV "The Making of Rock n Roll Panty" (2015) 3:00 (Japan)

So I know you’re saying to yourself: I just watched the Space Shower TV’s Rock n’ Roll Panty. But did they really do it? Was it real?
Well my friends, wonder no longer. Here is the making of. Science was involved. Rock and Roll! Also, huge shout out to the voice over guy. Man, I wish all case studies were this awesome.

The binary typewriter, the oak barrel of internet-juice & other weird things from Pantograph

Pantograph is a Japanese model making company & artist collective, whose creations you’ve seen in both movies and advertising. To self-promote (and make a buck) they set their prop makers loose with only one goal: make a unpractical but really interesting thing. I’d say useless, but none of these things are totally useless, they’re impossible, impractical and pointless but not useless. Some of them even seem like we could have something like that, but we don’t.

MetLife – My Dearest Dad & Mom – (2015) 2:30 (Japan)

MetLife - My Dearest Dad & Mom - (2015) 2:30 (Japan)
In a new campaign for Japanese insurance company MetLife, children filmed their parents’ daily lives to create a short film, to show their parents how important the bond of family is. This viral idea was created by Isobar Japan and is called called “My Dearest Dad and Mom.” This is a short teaser version, the subtitled 12 minute directors cut is available on youtube, which has more of each family in it, and a long tear-filled reading of letters to his parents by the young boy Rintaro, which will make you sob along if you’re the highly empathic type. In other words : MASSIVE KLEENEX WARNING. To create the films, Isobar Japan worked in collaboration with Dentsu, Japan’s largest advertising agency.

Isobar creative director Hiroyuki Emoto, explains the idea: “The theme of it, the universal concept of family speaks to everyone the same way around the world while simultaneously raising the question, what is the true essence of family? This emphasis builds depth and the emerging answer from viewers – I feel, is to strive for the fundamentals and pursue reality creatively. As real as it is, the existence of a number of challenges and risks involved in realising this project required the team to synchronise their hearts and accomplish this emotionally-driven production within a single day.”

Toyota Japan Tells the Same Story Twice in This Really Lovely Father's Day Ad

Toyota is celebrating Father’s Day with a sweet ad about a dad and his daughter’s relationship through the years—told from both perspectives.

The three-and-a-half minute montage first tells the story from the father’s point of view, starting when his girl is just a newborn. As she grows up, he graduates from a small hatchback to a minivan, and he eventually slaps a “Baby on board” sticker on her own car (for his grandkid).

The real fun, though, comes in the second half of the commercial, which follows the same story but told from the daughter’s perspective, throwing in even more cute tidbits—like the moment, as a teen, when she tosses the giant pink mittens she’s outgrown but Dad is still foisting upon her.

Father-daughter car stories are nothing new—Subaru famously excels at them. General throwbacks to growing up while riding around in a particular make are familiar, too, as are series on an automaker’s evolving models.

But Toyota’s approach here blends a number of popular themes into a powerful sequence that, save for some not-entirely-convincing aging, is well-produced. The split story is also an effective hook—once you’ve seen the father’s side, curiosity about the daughter’s take on the same events helps carry it through to the end.

Eventually, the ad does deliver its own hard sales pitch—a Toyota collision alarm system saves all three generations from rear-ending the car in front of them. The subtitled English translation of the tagline—”Love works invisible. Toyota works love”—doesn’t really do it justice. The rough spirit of the Japanese is something closer to “Love invisibly watches over you. We use the same eye in our cars.”

That’s not a bad way to tie the whole piece together, even if it’s safe to say that when all is said and done, Toyota loves your money more than it loves you.



Put Your Finger on the Screen, and This Music Video Becomes Delightfully Fun

If you want to see all the clever things your fingertip can do, check out this cool new interactive music video from Japanese pop star Namie Amuro.

The video offers a pop-art cornucopia of wit and silliness based on one simple instruction—you’re asked to put your finger on the screen and leave it there as the video plays. It’s an apt concept for the song, which is called “Golden Touch,” and it’s reminiscent of the classic Canadian campaign from Skittles that played around with the same idea.

Keep your finger at the center of the video, and let the camera do the heavy lifting—scratch a vinyl record, light up a chill dachshund’s touch-sensitive LED jacket, trap a monster under its manhole cover, and much more. The clip rewards you for sticking it out to the end, with a range of unexpected applications—some abstract, some literal, some cheeky.

But maybe the credit should go to Ze Frank for pioneering the gag, even if his take wasn’t as refined.



Cold Drinks Turn These Thermal-Ink Coasters Into Pictures of Battered Women

A new Japanese campaign aims to combat domestic violence in the country with inventive coasters that hope to tame excessive drinking, which can contribute to the problem.

Yaocho, a bar chain, and agency Ogilvy & Mather Tokyo created the coasters, each of which features a portrait of a woman’s face printed in thermal ink. When a cold drink rests on the coaster, the portrait changes to include cuts and bruises.

The visuals are—no pun intended—chilling, and it’s a clever use of media, though perhaps a touch too much so for its own good, with mechanics that may undermine the spirit and gravity of the message.

“This drink will turn the woman on this coaster into a beat-up woman—just like you might do to a real woman, if you drink too much,” is essentially the subtext of the ads. “Can you have another round without wanting to hit your significant other?”

But as Lucia Peters points out over at Bustle, while alcohol can be a factor in domestic violence, “placing the blame for domestic violence on alcohol excuses the people who commit the crimes in the first place—which is classic abuser behavior.”

Yaocho deserves credit for openly addressing domestic violence, and trying to raise awareness, theoretically at the expense of its own business. But while a drinking establishment is, on its face, the right place to reach viewers with a message about alcohol and domestic abuse, there’s also a bit of cognitive dissonance in an anti-drinking ad that requires the viewer to be drinking to deliver its full effect.

The tagline, at least in its translated version, isn’t even “Don’t drink too much.” Rather, it is “Don’t let excessive drinking end in domestic violence.” In other words, “It’s OK to spend your money on a bender, so long as you don’t beat your wife or girlfriend afterward.”

And if you are the type of person who gets violent when you drink, you probably shouldn’t be drinking at all. 

More info below. Via Design Taxi.



Quiksilver Is Now Making Business Suits That Double as Wetsuits

Surf’s up—so let’s suit up business-style and catch a wave!

That’s the thrust of a new project by TBWAHakuhodo and Quiksilver, which have teamed up to introduce True Wetsuits in Japan. These 2-millimeter-thick neoprene suits help guys look smashing at the office—or while hanging ten, shooting curls or whatever the hell people do on surfboards these days.

The well-dressed dude in the two-minute clip below certainly seems to be having fun, playing hooky at the beach and texting work that he’s stuck in traffic. Such a rebel. He’ll make CEO in no time.

So, why is Quiksilver selling such an item? In the making-of video, Tokyo salaryman Masashi Yuki explains: “It takes too much time to put on a wetsuit and then take it off again, you know?” Quiksilver brand director Shin Kimitsuka adds, “As your lifestyle changes, you have less time to go surfing. I thought it would be interesting to offer this product as a new solution to deal with this issue.”

These made-to-order suits are, at present, available only in Japan and exclusively in men’s styles. Delivery takes two months, and jacket, pants, shirts and ties are included for about $2,500 total. That’s a bargain! At Barney’s, some sportcoats alone will run you more than that. And think how much you’ll save on dry cleaning!



Tokyo Airport Terminal Is Designed Like a Running Track Ahead of the 2020 Olympics

Tokyo’s Narita International Airport has built a new terminal with walkways outfitted in the style of indoor running tracks—a fitting precursor to the 2020 Olympic Games, which the city is hosting (even if it’s a bit premature, as the 2016 Games haven’t even happened yet).

The terminal’s foot traffic lanes are color-coded and use stenciled symbols to represent various airport destinations. The design—for which Japanese agency Party can be thanked—is also a side effect of the project’s low budget (there are no moving walkways), and the flights operating from the terminal are mostly low-cost carriers.

As a whole, the theme provides some fun (if unintentional) commentary about the rush of modern air travel. And so as long as people can figure out the stencils/lane color pairings, it’s a success on a couple of fronts. If they don’t, they’ll get a head start on being aggressively inconvenienced by the time the Olympics show up to wreck their city for months on end.

Via PSFK.



Toyota Japan Goes Deep With One of the Most Delightful Baseball Ads in a Long Time

Some people complain that modern baseball games last too long, but the one in this Japanese ad for Toyota’s G cars will make you root for extra innings.

Salarymen and businesswomen push fantastical red “G” buttons positioned around midtown, and the action begins. Soon, balls are flying off bats toward skyscrapers, and office-attired players are diving across concrete (ouch!) to make dazzling catches. They use manhole covers for bases, and a traffic cop (I think) serves as an umpire. At one point, Warren Cromartie, a former star in the U.S. who was much more popular when he played in Japan, argues a call. You tell ’em, Cro!

The final at-bat features an airborne Prius in a grandstand play of epic proportions—truly a towering drive.

Dubbed “Baseball Party,” the film has deservedly earned almost 3.5 million YouTube views in Japan in two weeks. And there’s a behind-the-scenes clip, naturally.

Sure, the connection between the brand and baseball is tenuous, to say the least, but the two-and-a-half-minute commercial is such exhilarating fun, only a mean-spirited boo-bird would object. You might shout, “Let’s play two!” and watch it again.



BAND-MAID – / Thrill / ??? – music video (Japan)

Overheard in the Adland offices:

– ” Sooo, Dabitch, you’re posting a video which is the usual “band stands around in white room” and “very cheap split screen edit tricks”, really now, is this worthy of being archived?”
– ” Japanese girl band.”
– ” Yeah OK, so it’s a girl band, fine, but that’s not exactly groundbreaking either.”
– ” Japanese hard rock girl band.”
– ” Still not seeing the bleeding edge here?”
– ” Japanese hard rock girl band in maid outfits called Band-Maid”
– ” That’s it, your pun-limits have been used up this week. Stop. I’m cutting you off.”
– ” That bass solo though. C’mon. You love them.”
– ” I do, I do.”