大塚製薬 | とどけ、熱量。 | 2016
Hikari Mitsushima, Just Singing / Otsuka Pharmaceutical CALORIEMATE "Fight" "Deliver the Heat" Campaign
This is one of those commercials where the casting and the song choice alone do all the work. The copy also plays on the word "calorie," turning it into "heat," which adds emotional weight and makes it feel like a truly great anthem of encouragement. Even now, if you look at the YouTube comments, you'll still find things like "I'm taking exams! This gave me courage!" It feels like the kind of ad that will keep being remembered, slowly, for a long time to come.
The problem
This is one entry in Otsuka Pharmaceutical's CALORIEMATE commercial series cheering on students taking entrance exams, which began in 2012. Hikari Mitsushima was brought on as the new face of the campaign, with the concept being to deliver a song to students taking exams now, and to everyone who once was one.
The insight
The song chosen was Miyuki Nakajima's "Fight!" One reason for the choice was a neat coincidence: the song was born in 1983, the same year as CALORIEMATE itself. There's real craft in the idea of layering a classic anthem of encouragement onto the product's own history.
The idea
The singing scene was reportedly filmed at a junior high school in the Tokyo area. Mitsushima was particular about singing in a way that conveyed real feeling, and apparently re-sang the song nearly 20 times just for the final takes. She stands on the school's athletic field, looking straight ahead as she sings. Her presence alone is enough to make the image work.
What happened
The series later continued with a "For New Members of Society" installment (set to Kome Kome Club's "Romance Flight") and a "Humans and Cheetahs" installment. The creative team behind it went on to win the TCC Award and an ACC Award Gold the following year, and the exam-season cheering series itself has become a long-running hit, picking up numerous advertising awards along the way.
Afterthought
Even years after the commercial aired, Mitsushima has sung this song again on other music programs, and each time, comments pop up online saying things like it feels as though she's singing about her own life. It's rare for a single song from a commercial to go on being sung like that, carrying the weight of the performer's own life with it.
