It's okay for a teenage summer to look like this / KIRIN Gogo no Kocha "Being myself is the strongest thing. Summer"

The problem

Since March 2019, Kirin's Gogo no Kocha (Afternoon Tea) had been running communications under the tagline "Team Tea," encouraging people to be themselves without forcing anything. For the summer commercial, they cast Sara Minami, who was an actual high school student at the time, in the lead role, aiming to connect with younger viewers. Gogo no Kocha had traditionally been known for a sweet, feminine image, but around this time the brand started leaning harder into the emotional value of "being yourself."

The insight

Filmed in Sendai, the commercial brought together more than 200 local extras to capture real, believable school life. The story follows a girl who used to play her instrument alone, then forms a band with three others she met on social media, and the four of them work toward holding their own little festival. Along the way, they discover the joy of expressing who they really are. This isn't the high-intensity, full-throttle youth you'd see in something like CalorieMate ads. It's more down-to-earth, more casual, more like how kids actually are today. Instead of saying "youth should look like this," it gently says, "it's okay for youth to look like this too."

The idea

The four leads were cast from completely different fields: actress Sara Minami, former idol Haruka Kudo, model Mei Tanaka, and YouTuber Kobashiri. Each brought her own personality to the band, which mapped naturally onto the characters. The song they performed was a cover of JUDY AND MARY's well-known track "Over Drive." During filming, the four reportedly reviewed each take together, celebrating and commiserating as a group, and kept chatting about personal stuff even when the cameras weren't rolling—creating a sense of unity so strong it looked like a real band. Minami played guitar and sang lead vocals, Kudo played guitar, Kobashiri played bass, and Tanaka played drums. None of the four had any band experience before this, but they built up their performance through repeated practice.

What happened

A full, web-exclusive short film was also released, telling the story of how the band came together and built up to their live performance, running about six minutes. While the TV commercial itself was 30 seconds, the short film went deeper into how the four girls met and connected through music, and it became a talking point on social media. The project was produced by Hakuhodo, with Tomo Harada as creative director, Shin Nagashima as creative director and art director, and Yukiko Kumazaki as copywriter.

Afterthought

This one felt incredibly real to me. Gogo no Kocha had been quietly moving into this territory for a while, but seeing this made me realize how far they'd come. It feels like they're chasing after CalorieMate's lane, and honestly, catching up—no, not even chasing, more like running alongside it now. If CalorieMate represents "youth where you push yourself hard," then Gogo no Kocha represents "youth where it's okay to just be yourself." Both are right. Both are dazzling in their own way.

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