ANA | ボルト、登場編 | 2016
Say "TOKIO" and Still No One Gets It / ANA "Bolt Arrives"
In February 2016, ANA built a commercial around Usain Bolt, "the fastest man alive," to promote Tokyo 2020. Bolt dances his own original moves to Kenji Sawada's song "TOKIO," and at the end asks "Boruten-deru?" It's... well, honestly, a bit of a head-scratcher of a commercial.
The insight
"When I hear '2020,' I kind of jumped to the conclusion that these campaigns would be about dignity, history, that sort of serious thing" — that was my honest first impression. Olympic campaigns do tend to lean toward a pretty solemn tone, so maybe they were trying to stand out by going the opposite direction.
The idea
It was filmed in Kingston, Jamaica, with Bolt himself improvising the dancing and posing. He also apparently tried the Japanese lines over and over, and even had fun trying calligraphy. The set seems to have had a warm, friendly atmosphere.
Afterthought
"There's no way today's young people would know Kenji Sawada's 'TOKIO,' and on top of that, even Bolt himself seems a little lost until the very end — it's a somewhat mysterious piece." Looking back at it now, that's exactly right. Figuring out how to hype up a big event like 2020 has no single right answer, which is exactly what makes it so hard. I remember seeing this commercial back when it aired, and honestly thought, "huh?" But maybe that confusion was the whole point.
