ライオン | 2011
A Story for Every Person / LION "Time Slip Family"
A family photo taken in 1991, and the same family in 2011. Lined up across time, in the same place, from the same angle.
FEATURE
Until They Return to the Same Sky, the Same Line
20 years, 27 years, 27 years, 33 years, and over 50 years.
It took Nike 27 years to return to a Super Bowl ad slot, and it took Cathay Pacific 27 years to fly once more over the skies of the now-closed Kai Tak airport. This feature lines up five ads that went back, after many years, to a place or a person they'd worked with before — arranged from the shortest gap to the longest. First up is a lion who recreated a family photo in the exact same spot and angle as one taken 20 years earlier. After two ads with a 27-year gap comes JR Tokai, where the same actor waves again, just as he did in a commercial from 1988. Last of all is L'Oréal, which went back to the very person who wrote four words in 1971 — the longest gap here, at over 50 years.
5 articles
Cathay Pacific | 2026
Back in that sky again, after 27 years / Cathay Pacific "Back to Kai Tak"
Kai Tak Airport closed in 1998. It was known as the world's toughest landing, with planes banking 47 degrees between high-rise buildings before touching down. Twenty-seven years later, Cathay Pacific flew that sky once more. This time, though, it wasn't a landing — it was a flypast.
Nike | 2025
Nike's first Super Bowl ad in 27 years put women athletes front and center / Nike "So Win"
After 27 years away, Nike returned to Super Bowl advertising, and this time it lined up some of today's top women athletes: Caitlin Clark, Sha'Carri Richardson, A'ja Wilson, and more. The line: "You can't win. So win."
JR東海 | 2022
Thirty-three years later, waving on the same platform again / JR Central "Meeting Someone Turned Out to Be Special."
In 1988, Eri Fukatsu waited on a station platform for her boyfriend. In 2022, she had become a businesswoman taking the bullet train to Osaka on a work trip. JR Central quietly captured these 33 years of change in just 60 seconds.
L’OREAL | 2025
Advertising Is for People / L'ORÉAL PARIS "THE FINAL COPY OF ILON SPECHT"
A 17-minute documentary that changes a life. Or, to be precise, it's an experience of watching a life that already *was* changed, forever. In 1971, a 23-year-old copywriter wrote four words that are still used around the world more than 50 years later. A film recording the words she spoke at the very end of her life just won the Grand Prix in the Film category at Cannes Lions 2025. This is a story about advertising. And it isn't. It's a story about a human being.
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