ACジャパン | ライバルは、1964年 | 2017
In the Year of Gen Hoshino, Calling Back the Past / AC Japan "Our Rival Is 1964"
2016 was the year of Gen Hoshino. His song "Koi" became a massive hit through the drama "Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu," making him the pop icon of the era. It was exactly at that moment that this AC Japan commercial aired.
The insight
Aimed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, this campaign carried the theme "Let's think about Japan, heading toward 2020." It combined black-and-white footage from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics with a newly written song by Gen Hoshino, "Hello Song," and narration. The footage also featured Hitoshi Ueki, whom Hoshino had admired since he was ten years old, creating a collaboration that crossed eras. That said, the message ends simply at "let's think about it," which feels somewhat incomplete. Honestly, today's audiences won't be moved unless you tell them exactly what to think about, how, and how much.
Afterthought
The finished piece is beautiful. There's a certain emotional quality to the moment when the innocent smiles of 1964 overlap with the voice of Gen Hoshino, the pop icon of 2016. But this is an ad that depends entirely on context—someday, when someone looks back at this footage without knowing just how much Gen Hoshino symbolized 2016, I suspect it won't quite make sense. It's not meaningless, but it feels like a kind of momentary performance wrapped in the mood of its era.
