コンタクトのアイシティ | 透明人間 | 1999
"Hey, you're smart!" "Hey, you've got good eyes!" / Eye City "The Invisible Man"
In 1999, an ad with absolutely wild energy hit Japanese TV. It's 60 seconds of glasses-wearing guys who get their hands on an invisibility drug and go streaking through the city, completely naked. There's a suppository, floating glasses, and more ridiculous details than you can count — yet somehow it's hilarious, and somehow it makes perfect sense. A true classic.
The insight
"Even if you turn invisible, your glasses don't turn invisible." The brilliance here is boiling down the product's whole selling point into that one absurdly simple fact. The message is almost painfully obvious — switch from glasses to contacts — but wrapping it in a sci-fi setup and over-the-top comedy turns it into something nobody had ever seen before. The Trainspotting-style sprint through the city is the icing on the cake.
The idea
A group of young guys get hold of a drug that makes them invisible. They strip off and vanish — except their glasses, which stay floating in midair. "Why not switch to contacts?" "Hey, you're smart!" Then they go sprinting naked through the streets and spot an Eye City sign. "Hey, you've got good eyes!" With a punchline that simple and details crafted down to the last touch (like the drug being a suppository), the 60 seconds fly by.
Afterthought
There's no way this could air in 2016, but a classic is a classic. The sheer energy, the gags, and how easy it is to get — anyone can laugh at this. I'd love to see more ads like this: ridiculous, but still properly getting the product message across!
