NTTドコモ | ポケベル「はじめる」 | 1996
It left a mark on almost every guy of that generation / NTT DoCoMo Pager "Hajimeru"
In 1996, a 15-year-old girl lying on an octopus slide in a park, humming a little tune, appeared on TVs across Japan. "I got a pager for my birthday," she said in a sweet, slightly lisping voice. Her name was Ryoko Hirosue, and this commercial turned her into an instant star.
The problem
In 1996, pagers were at the peak of their popularity in Japan. It was the era of the "beru-tomo" (pager friend) boom, where messages were exchanged using number codes like 14106 (which read out loud sounds like "I love you"), especially among high school girls. DoCoMo wanted to bring this new communication tool to even more young people.
The idea
The octopus slide in the park, Air Max sneakers, the short haircut, Hideki Kaji's song "Muscat" playing in the background. Everything captured the feel of that moment, and looking back ten years later, you can really see how carefully it was all crafted. The narration, too, "Oh my, where did she go? Ryoko Hirosue starts using a pager," is just wonderful.
What happened
This commercial made Ryoko Hirosue an instant celebrity. At the time, people said the "Hirosue effect" sent sales of both Clearasil and DoCoMo's pagers soaring, and the pager market indeed hit its peak number of subscribers in 1996. Afterward, from 1996 to 2001, Hirosue served as DoCoMo's image character, appearing in commercials for all three generations of the company's products: pagers, i-mode, and smartphones.
Afterthought
This is a commercial that surely left some kind of impression on almost every guy who lived through that era. The intensity of the direction that captured the mood of the time, the laid-back vibe of Hideki Kaji's song, and above all, the sheer transparency of Ryoko Hirosue's presence. Even after 30 years, it hasn't faded one bit.
