東京ガス | がんばれ私たち | 2020
Why Did They Turn It Into a Song? / Tokyo Gas "Ganbare Watashitachi"
In November 2020 (11/2020), right in the middle of the pandemic, Tokyo Gas aired this commercial. A 25-year-old woman chasing her dream of becoming an actress lives through days that don't go the way she wants, all set to a song sung by actress Shizuka Ishibashi herself. Her father shows up in his little truck, her grandmother cheers her on through a smartphone screen, and that's when I gave up fighting the tears.
The problem
Tokyo Gas has been running its "Family Bonds" series since 2008. Through the theme of cooking, the series keeps exploring what lies at the heart of a family, aiming to make commercials durable enough to be watched repeatedly for a full year during the Saturday morning show "Shokusai no Okoku." In 2020, amid the "unusual circumstances" of the pandemic, Tokyo Gas made this commercial with the thought: we want to keep being a familiar presence supporting our customers' lives, and especially because of the pandemic, we want to cheer on the people who are looking ahead to the future and doing their best.
The insight
"Why did they turn it into a song?" — that question crossed my mind too. The choice to build the commercial around an original song performed by Shizuka Ishibashi herself, rather than staging it as a musical or using a cover of a famous tune, makes for a strangely unusual structure. But that decision to "turn it into a song" is exactly what lightens the heaviness of the pandemic just a little, while still carrying the full weight of a 25-year-old woman's struggle straight to the viewer. Creative director Yoshimitsu Sawamoto has said the family theme should weave in the mood of the times to tell a universal story — and this choice may well have captured the feeling of 2020 precisely.
The idea
The commercial follows a young woman living in Tokyo, chasing her dream of becoming an actress, who struggles through days that don't go as planned — yet finds strength in her family's warmth as she takes one step closer to her goal. Her 25th birthday. Failing an audition. A senior colleague heading home. A text from her father saying, "You'd better not come home this year." Then suddenly, his little truck appears with a pot of simmered food, and her grandmother joins in through a smartphone screen. An original song performed by Shizuka Ishibashi herself carries this whole sequence of scenes.
What happened
The commercial began airing on November 28, 2020 (11/28), and ran for a full year. I couldn't confirm any detailed award history.
Afterthought
"I was watching it calmly, and then the father showed up, followed by grandma on the phone, and that's when I gave up" — I completely understand that reaction. In 2020, when we'd all grown so used to seeing "depictions of unusual circumstances" because of the pandemic, getting choked up by such a straightforward portrayal of family feels, in a way, like losing a battle. But that's okay. I still don't fully know why they turned it into a song, but I'm glad they did.
