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サントリー | 恋は、遠い日の花火ではない | 1994
This line was born in 1994, in the weary air that settled over Japan after the bubble economy burst. It appeared in a commercial starring Kyozo Nagatsuka and Yuko Tanaka—but in the end, it was this copy alone that stuck with people, far more than the renewal message "OLD is NEW" it was meant to carry. I happened to witness that very phenomenon.
NISSIN FOOD | HUNGRY? III UINTATHERIUM | 1994
This is the Uintatherium installment, from 1994. It's part of the era when the series that had already stunned the world with mammoths and moas was still going strong. A caveman gets tossed around by a giant mammal, but in the end there's just the word "hungry?" and that white cup with red. By now this rhythm needs no explanation. It's one of the sequels in the series that won the Grand Prix at Cannes as a whole and became a landmark in Japanese advertising history.
NISSIN FOOD | hungry? | 1993
At the Cannes festival, someone shouted "Hungry!" In 1993, Moa and Synthetoceras won the Grand Prix together, two films at once. Even across 60 years of Cannes, it's one of the legendary moments.
NISSIN FOOD | hungry? MOA | 1993
A Japanese commercial that won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 1993. It's just a caveman chasing an extinct bird called a moa and never quite catching it—that's the whole story—but somehow it's funny, and somehow it sticks with you. The timing of the stop-motion creatures moving is just perfect.
ライオン | チャーミーグリーン | 1992
I was washing dishes just now when this suddenly came back to me out of nowhere. Songs really do stick in your brain in a scary way. Along with that tune — "Using Charmy Green makes me want to hold your hand~♪" — the image of a married couple holding hands and dancing while they shop comes rushing back, and even now, more than 30 years later, I can picture it vividly. Just that alone tells you this ad was a win.
エーザイ | チョコラBB | 1991
"Doesn't it wear you out, how many idiots there are in the world?" The moment Kaori Momoi said that straight into the camera, all of Japan erupted. In 1991, complaints poured in right after the Chocola BB commercial aired, and within a few days it was swapped for a different version. But that may have been the plan all along. This is the story of an almost too-perfect "hit, then hit back" moment that's gone down in advertising history.
キューサイ | まずい！もう一杯！ | 1990
In 1990, the villain actor Nobuo Yana held up a glass and scrunched up his face. "It's awful!" he said. Then: "One more glass!" I was floored that a health food commercial would go there.
JR東海 | クリスマス・エクスプレス | 1989
When this commercial came on TV, it was nothing but pure excitement. Breathing in the air of the 1989 bubble economy, set to Tatsuro Yamashita's "Christmas Eve," Riho Makise dashes through Nagoya Station. It's only one minute long, but it leaves you with the happy afterglow of having watched a short film. Even now, the scene where 17-year-old Makise hides behind a pillar, waiting, hits with incredible force.
ソニー | 新世代ウォークマン WM-501 | 1987
Looking at it again, this is a seriously great piece of work. The idea, the direction—everything about it is excellent. But at the same time, it's a little sad to think that even a masterpiece like this had to work in a line about the "EX Amorphous Head."
MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL | A MENU OF LIGHTS | 1982
1982: the moment Japanese advertising first won the Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. Matsushita Electric Industrial—now Panasonic—made this piece together with Hakuhodo. A historic work from more than 40 years ago.