リクルートホールディングス | すべての人生が、すばらしい。 | 2014
Who Said Life Was a Marathon? / Recruit Point "All Lives Are Wonderful"
A commercial that declares life is a marathon—then immediately sets out to demolish its own metaphor.
The problem
Executive creative director Yuya Furukawa wasn't looking for "content." He wanted a commercial that would spark a "community." There isn't just one finish line in life—there are as many finish lines as there are people. Built around that philosophy for Recruit Point, the ad ran in a concentrated burst in February 2014, timed to coincide with broadcasts of the Sochi Olympics.
The insight
The brief was a tall order: not a commercial that's fun to watch, but one that gets people arguing after they've watched it. It opens with the start of a marathon. Actor Sosuke Ikematsu talks about what life and a marathon have in common, and after he says "Life is a marathon," the screen goes dark for a moment. But it doesn't end there. The whole setup is really just the opening act—the real point comes next.
The idea
With a single line—"But is that really true?"—the runners break away from the set course and scatter in all directions. "Who decided this course, anyway? Who decided the finish line?" Ikematsu asks, and from there people run off into their own versions of life: traveling, drinking with friends, getting married, having children. And yet the ad still shows someone crossing the tape at the stadium finish line. Whether you're the marathon type or not, the message lands: every life is wonderful.
What happened
The ad won bronze at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2014. It drew mixed reactions but was shared widely on social media, and the debate spread well beyond the advertising industry. Creative director Kota Tobata later reflected, "It was really tough, but it was a happy time."
Afterthought
At 120 seconds long, with a script that flips its own opening statement on its head, you have to admire the client for greenlighting an idea they knew would be divisive. What really gets me is that the production team's own words—something like "we agonized over it and kept running without seeing the finish line until the very end"—end up being the theme of the commercial itself.
Awards
- Cannes Lions Bronze 2014
