Subject
14 articles
眞露 | 恋スル！チャミスル シーズン1／恋するチャミスル シーズン2 | 2022
A forbidden romance across class lines, amnesia, a rich young heir, the fiancée of a company president's daughter—this ad packs in every K-drama plot twist you've ever seen, and I couldn't stop watching all six and a half minutes of it.
トヨタモビリティパーツ | 連続10秒ドラマ「愛の停止線」SEASON2 | 2020
A 10-second commercial that somehow packs in a full story arc, complete with a product punchline at the end. And not just once, but as a whole series. You laugh, you want to see what happens next, and before you know it, you've remembered the product name.
キリン 午後の紅茶 | あいたいって、あたためたいだ。18冬 | 2018
This series began in winter 2016, and apparently this is its conclusion. It's the kind of project where the casting alone practically guarantees success, but using the same actors across multiple years takes it even further. You can clearly see, right there on screen, what's been lost and what's been gained, and in that sense a different kind of charm emerges.
Skittles | Romance | 2017
This is the 2017 version of Skittles' 30-second Super Bowl spot, from the brand known for "the finger thing." A boy keeps throwing candy at a window—looks like it's shaping up to be a romantic scene, but it's not just his girlfriend who ends up catching them. That reliable punchline strikes again.
Lynx | 24-7 – Because you never know when | 2017
It's not just rewind. A man walks back the way he came, putting his clothes back on as he goes. Somewhere in the middle, it clicks — "oh, I see" — and your brain gets a little chill. There are plenty of ways to show love at first sight, but the ones that give you that lightbulb moment hit hardest.
ユニクロ | Because of Life, We Made LifeWear | 2017
Two strangers meet by chance at a desolate gas station. The overused phrase "it's like a scene from a movie" really does fit this footage perfectly.
サガミオリジナル | LOVE DISTANCE | 2016
A couple in a long-distance relationship start running toward each other from opposite sides of the screen. A number starting at 1.2 billion millimeters keeps shrinking as they get closer. I never imagined that the number it ends on, 0.02, could hit this hard.
キリン 午後の紅茶 | あいたいって、あたためたいだ。 | 2016
A quiet train platform. A high school girl with white headphones suddenly bursts into song, loud enough to reach the skies over Mount Aso. There's a bit of a puzzle about whether Moka Kamishiraishi's character could actually hear the sound of a drink dropping from the vending machine, which leaves you a little unsettled—but even setting that aside, this is still a wonderful piece of work.
ソフトバンク | プロポーズ | 2016
How do you capture a marriage proposal, one of life's big climactic moments? The chemistry between two distinctive actors, Mikako Ichikawa and Ryo Kase, creates an atmosphere that sticks with you in an odd way.
AXE | PREMATURE PERSPIRATION | 2011
When I saw this Argentine ad from 2011, I couldn't help but laugh. I mean, "premature perspiration" — even the name is already a metaphor for that other thing.
サントリー | BOSS セブン 世界を敵に篇 | 1999
This ad is from 1999. Watching it again, you can't help wondering what Uno Kanda is up to these days — but more than that, this commercial takes nitpicking to an almost legendary scale and turns it into pure entertainment.
IMPULSE | ART SCHOOL | 1998
A nude model at an art school "reacts" when a woman arrives late to class. The awkwardness of the moment gets expressed through the objects around them, used as metaphors. This was a body spray commercial that aired on British television in 1998.
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.
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.