Japan's First Cannes Grand Prix / MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL "A MENU OF LIGHTS"

The problem

The official title was National Light Bulb's "A Menu of Lights," running 90 seconds. It was a commercial by Matsushita Electric Industrial and Hakuhodo, with creative director Yuzuru Mizuhara, who joined Hakuhodo in 1977 and was the one who came up with the idea.

The insight

At the orientation, someone gave a lecture about research into lighting that makes fruit and food look delicious. While listening, Mizuhara idly doodled some fruit, almost without thinking—that's how it all started. The doodling itself reportedly took only about 10 seconds, late one night. Mizuhara has also been quoted saying that at Hakuhodo's Kansai production office, there was a senior colleague who kept turning out one entertaining commercial after another, and he felt that if he competed on the same ground, he could never win—so he had no choice but to try sprouting in a completely different direction.

The idea

The finished image showed light spilling out as you peel the skin off a piece of fruit. This was an era with no compositing technology, and it took a long time to get approval. But a section chief in the advertising department told him, "This is going to turn out great, so let's push it all the way," giving him the chance to reshoot, and somehow they managed to bring it to completion.

What happened

It won the Grand Prix in the Film category at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. This was reportedly the first time Japan had achieved this.

Afterthought

At this point, the detailed thinking and background behind the campaign can no longer be confirmed. But I wanted to leave a record here of the moment Japanese advertising was first recognized by the world. If anyone out there knows more about this piece, I'd love to hear from you.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 1982

Featured in

• Only the Ones Marked 'First'Reading through the Grand Prix records in order, from the very first in 1954 to 2022

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