ネスカフェ | 朝のリレー | 2003
Hugging the Earth with the Power of a Poem / NESCAFÉ "Morning Relay"
There's something striking about the simple fact that "somewhere on this planet, morning is always just beginning." It's obvious when you think about it, but it still catches you off guard - and that small realization, carried by the power of a poem, sweeps the viewer far, far away in an instant.
The problem
This commercial aired in 2003, the year the Iraq War broke out, when global tensions had reached a peak following the terrorist attacks in America. Against that backdrop, I think this ad carried Nestlé's wish to cherish something small and ordinary: enjoying your usual cup of coffee on an ordinary morning.
The insight
Apparently this project came together because an ad person who loved the poem "Morning Relay" and desperately wanted to use it in a commercial kept visiting poet Shuntaro Tanikawa again and again, and that persistence eventually made it happen. One of the things that makes a great ad is offering people a new way of seeing - and this is exactly that. "Morning Relay" and coffee, which wakes you up in the morning, are a perfect match. There's a real sense of inevitability in how the poem and the product come together.
The idea
The ad features a reading of Shuntaro Tanikawa's poem "Morning Relay," set against footage of different "morning skies" from around the world. In the background plays a piano piece composed and performed by his son, Kensaku Tanikawa, which sounds like a bell ringing from somewhere far away - a wonderfully poetic touch. After the reading ends, the light clink of a coffee cup meeting its spoon brings everything gently back down to everyday life. Nothing more than sky, poem, piano, and the sound of coffee. That's all it takes.
What happened
The commercial won the Grand Prix at the 2004 ACC CM Festival. It also picked up the ADC Award, the TCC Award, and various other honors - a true masterpiece among masterpieces. Many viewers said that seeing the black coffee filling a white cup at the end of the ad mysteriously made them want to drink coffee themselves.
Afterthought
It makes me happy to think NESCAFÉ gets to own an image like this. I truly wish they'd keep doing it - even if just once every few years. The poem was first published in 1982 and has appeared in Japanese school textbooks ever since, so for many Japanese people it must feel both nostalgic and fresh, something timeless. This was a commercial that seemed to hug the whole earth with the power of a poem.
