NTTドコモ | ForONEs 2017 | 2017
Taking Off the Roles to Reveal Just One Person / NTT Docomo "ForONEs 2017"
This commercial, released by Docomo in 2017 under the name "ForONEs," shows people taking off colorful T-shirts to portray the diversity within each individual. Take off the actor, and there's a dancer. Take off the professional boxer, and there's a single mother. Take off the doctor, and there's a patient. Everyone has multiple faces, but behind them all is just one "self." At a time when everyone and their mother was talking about diversity, this 60-second spot boldly stripped away any sense of "Docomo-ness," and that choice itself feels like a kind of resolve.
The insight
The project originally started as something for women only, but by expanding it to include men too, they tried to show a condensed picture of the world's diversity. The combinations of people and words are almost entirely true to life. The director's comment left an impression: the people who appeared were asked to come before the camera with the resolve to expose their own lives, and what the director really wanted to capture was that resolve itself. The wish to make a commercial with no lies comes through clearly on screen.
The idea
The colorful T-shirts are symbolic. Each role or trait is something you can "wear," like clothing, and something you can take off. And when you take one off, another face appears, and then another. You're ONE person, yet you hold ONEs—multiple sides. That idea comes across visually, in a very direct way.
Afterthought
At a time when everyone and their mother was talking about diversity, this piece stripped away Docomo-ness right down to the closing company logo, giving it a feel that goes beyond typical corporate advertising—you could almost mistake it for a Uniqlo ad. But I think that's exactly the point. The concept was lovely, and the resolve of each person who appeared was properly etched into the screen. When an ad focuses on what it wants to say rather than whose name is on it, this is the kind of strength that can result.
