An Ordinary Person's Full Effort Beats a Celebrity's Full Effort / Kirin Nodogoshi Nama "Dream of Dreams: Pro Baseball"

The problem

This is from Kirin Beer's "Nodogoshi: Dream of Dreams" campaign, which ran from January 2013. Under the slogan "Let's make your dream come true together," the idea was to collect dreams from the public and actually make them happen, turning the whole thing into a commercial. The series started with a pro wrestling match against Riki Choshu (first installment), followed by forming a band with THE ALFEE (second installment), then a kung fu showdown with Jackie Chan (fourth installment). Out of more than 60,000 entries submitted since the campaign began, the most common theme by far was "baseball." In answer to that demand, the fifth installment became this pro baseball edition.

The insight

The structure here isn't about showing off something amazing a celebrity can do—it's about showing ordinary people giving their all, which pulls viewers closer. On January 5, 2014, at the Tokyo Dome, the campaign took on its biggest scale yet, granting the dreams of about 80 baseball fans all at once. Specific dreams like "I want to be a battery partner with player Yano" or "I want to go head-to-head against player Kiyohara" were each met seriously by 25 professional players, both active and retired. Yuta Asahina, the producer at TYO who worked on the project, said, "We took the dreams of people we'd never even heard of until the day before completely seriously." The project itself embodies the brand's stance of cheering on people who are giving it their all.

The idea

78 people gathered through public submissions formed the "Dream of Dreams" team, and they faced off against the star-studded "Nodogoshi All-Stars"—featuring Kazuhiro Kiyohara, Daisuke Miura, Kazuo Matsui, Atsushi Nomi, and others—at the Tokyo Dome. KAT-TUN's Kazuya Kamenashi also took part. Special rules applied: the game ended after five innings, and sides switched if a team scored 5 or more runs in an inning. Each participant brought a specific dream, and the pro players responded in earnest. One by one, dreams came true: "I want to face off against Kiyohara like we were battery partners back in high school," "I want to be Yano's battery partner," "I want to pinch-hit for Kiyohara and become Kiyohara," "I want to hype up the crowd as a base coach." Kazuo Tokumitsu handled the commentary, and even the umpires and massage staff were ordinary people, turning the entire Tokyo Dome into a machine for making dreams come true.

What happened

The TV commercial began airing nationwide on January 24, 2014. The series as a whole (including the kung fu edition) won Silver in Promo Lotus, Bronze in Film Lotus, and was a Finalist in Direct Lotus at Adfest 2014. The commercials drew more than 2.5 million views on YouTube combined (as of August 2013), and the campaign site overall surpassed 4 million views, sparking major buzz. Kazuhiro Kiyohara, who took part, commented, "It reminded me of why I love baseball in the first place. I'm happy to have competed alongside people who love and care about the game." Shingo Takatsu said, "Making dreams come true matters, of course, but there are also a lot of people who can't even hold onto a dream. I'm glad people can have big dreams about baseball, and I'm happy I could help make that happen this time."

Afterthought

Every making-of video in this series is outrageously good, but the baseball edition feels especially special because of how many people took part—you get a glimpse into so many different lives. Saying "dreams can come true," over and over, makes the world a little better. It's good enough that I think it should just be aired as its own TV show. Including the Jackie Chan edition, I think this whole project is something everyone in the advertising industry should look up to. They took a process full of risk and pushed through it with everyone's passion. Seeing something like this makes me embarrassed to ever complain about the work in front of me.

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