Year
46 articles
JAMIE XX | GOSH | 2017
This isn't CGI. It's all real. Four hundred boys with hair dyed blonde, running through a fake Paris toward a fake Eiffel Tower. The first time I saw it, all I could say was "whoa."
Nescafe | The Dead Hour | 2017
Nobody listens to the radio at half past five in the morning. Nescafe in India zeroed in on exactly that "empty" hour.
UPSIDE DOWN & INSIDE OUT - S7 AIRLINES | Upside Down & Inside Out | 2017
Shooting a music video in zero gravity — a dream OK Go had been holding onto for ten years finally came true when they crossed paths with S7 Airlines.
JAXA | KIBO SCIENCE 360 - A Space Experiment with Google | 2017
Just assemble a single piece of cardboard, and you can become an astronaut. "KIBO SCIENCE 360," created by JAXA, Google, and Dentsu, is a project that recreates the Kibo experiment module on the ISS in VR.
TRANSPORT ACCIDENT COMMISSION VICTORIA | MEET GRAHAM | 2017
Grotesque, strange, and impossible to look away from. Graham is the only human being ever designed purely to survive on the road. No neck, a thickened skull, twelve airbag-like nipples across his chest, lumpy skin. The moment you see him, you flinch. But buried inside that flinch is a message that really matters.
Old Spice | Odor Blocker Body Wash | 2017
It's Premium Friday, so I figure now's a good time to grin at something wonderfully ridiculous.
Donate Life America | The World's Biggest Asshole | 2017
Coleman F. Sweeney is the biggest jerk in town. He pees while driving and tosses it out the window, shoots the neighbor's dog with a paintball gun, steals candy from kids on Halloween. But he was an organ donor.
KENZO | MY MUTANT BRAIN | 2017
In this perfume commercial, a woman shoots laser beams out of her hands. And somehow it won a Titanium Lion at Cannes. Perfume ads finally broke.
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO | Van Gogh's Bedrooms | 2017
You could actually spend the night in Van Gogh's Bedroom. Turning a museum exhibit into a $10-a-night Airbnb stay is a wild idea.
ACジャパン | ライバルは、1964年 | 2017
2016 was the year of Gen Hoshino. His song "Koi" became a massive hit through the drama "Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu," making him the pop icon of the era. It was exactly at that moment that this AC Japan commercial aired.
headspace | Reword | 2017
A red strikethrough appears before you hit send. Type something cruel, and it asks, "Are you sure you want to send that?" It's basically spellcheck for bullying. The mechanism is simple, and the aim is dead straight.
カロリーメイト | 夢の背中 | 2016
This CALORIEMATE commercial cheering on students taking entrance exams follows a year in the life of a son grinding through a second attempt at university entrance exams, from the mother's point of view—from the day he decides to repeat the year to the day of the exam itself. Niiro Murakami, who shaved off his long hair for the role, plays the son, while Misuzu Kanno plays the mother who watches over him with quiet warmth. The soundtrack features Ryota Fujimaki's own cover of Remioromen's song "March 9th."
OLD SPICE | SMELLCOME TO MANHOOD (MOM'S SONG) | 2016
A mother hiding outside her son's bedroom door, secretly singing to herself — that image alone is unsettling. Once their sons start using Old Spice, they suddenly become magnets for girls, and the mothers sing about it together, looking almost heartbroken.
ALPHAGO | AlphaGo | 2016
Seoul, March 2016. The world's strongest Go player, Lee Sedol, faced off against Google's Go-playing AI, AlphaGo, in a five-game match. Go had long been called a game AI could never solve. In just five days, that belief was turned upside down.
adidas | I GOT THIS | 2016
Nana Eikura's trained body is godlike without any exaggeration, and the film makes you want to start training yourself, whether you like it or not.
Rethink | One Dollar One Show | 2016
Pay just one dollar, and your name gets credited on one of advertising's most prestigious awards. Somehow, this idea actually became a real campaign.
Canon | A picture of you | 2016
In an age when a "photo" isn't really about capturing "truth" anymore, this film grew out of the question: how should Canon redefine its value?
Spotify | New Music, New Me | 2016
Mom is chopping scallions in the kitchen. That's all there is to it — but set it to Takkyu Ishino's techno, and the whole world changes.
GOOGLE, GE, MINI, NEW YORK TIMES | NYT VR | 2016
A million pieces of cardboard were delivered along with the newspaper. Inside was Google Cardboard. In 2016, the New York Times used it to turn the newspaper business upside down.
キングレコード | RUN and RUN MV for Smartphone | 2016
You hold your phone upright and watch the screen, and without you noticing, it shifts from the lock screen to Twitter, FaceTime, and the camera app. A music video where six members run around inside all of it. This is exactly what you'd call a "now that's a clever idea" moment.
キリン プラズマ乳酸菌 | SPECIAL STUDENT | 2016
Dekushi! Barrier! Short sleeves and shorts! There was always one of those kids in your elementary school class. The "Dekushi master" who whips out mysterious sound effects, the "short-sleeves-and-shorts kid" who shows up 365 days a year—snow or storm—in short sleeves and shorts, the girls who perform the hand-clapping game Alps Ichimanjaku at lightning speed. It's so nostalgic I can't stop laughing.
COMMERCIAL RESIDENCE | House of Clicks | 2016
200 million. That's a staggering number. But it wasn't just a number. Etched into all those countless clicks was the shape of the house that two million Swedes dreamed of. They took that data and turned it into bricks and mortar, actually building a real house out of it. It might be the most romantic use of big data you'll ever see.
ANA | ボルト、登場編 | 2016
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.
BEAMS | TOKYO CULTURE STORY｜今夜はブギー・バック(smooth rap) in 40 YEARS OF TOKYO FASHION & MUSIC | 2016
From 1976 to 2016, a single unbroken shot races through 40 years of Tokyo in just five minutes. It's simply overwhelming.
マルコメ | 世界初カワイイ味噌汁 原宿味（Definition of Japanese Kawaii） | 2016
Packaging miso soup as "kawaii" sounds like a strange combination, but somehow it works. In 2016, Marukome launched a new product aimed at young people: the "world's first" cute instant miso soup. The promotional film made for it was done with insane levels of commitment, and it ended up winning Gold at ADFEST 2017.
JACQUARD WEARABLE FABRIC | JACQUARD WEARABLE FABRIC | 2016
What if technology disappeared every time you put on your clothes? That's exactly what Google set out to do. This is the story of a jacket where you can control calls and music just by brushing your hand across the denim sleeve.
Nike | The Switch | 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo collides with a ball boy and they swap bodies. Spoiler: that's the whole story. And yet for almost six minutes, you can't look away. It's the kind of ad that makes you think, "So this is how far you can go if you really commit."
日清食品カップヌードル | OBAKA's大学に春が来た！ | 2016
"If you try something, people mock you. If you fail, people pile on." In an era like that, Beat Takeshi stood frozen as a bronze statue of the university president, while Sachiko Kobayashi, Mutsugoro, Mari Yaguchi, and Takashi Niigaki served as the professors at the newly opened "OBAKA's UNIVERSITY." People said there probably aren't many companies in Japan that could greenlight a commercial idea like this — and no wonder. The moment I saw it, I had to take my hat off.
PAINT | COLOR FOR THE COLORBLIND | 2016
For the 300 million people worldwide with color blindness, a paint company found a way to "show" them color. Sounds impossible, right?
AUSTRALIAN ROAD SAFETY FOUNDATION | Life-Saving Stickers | 2016
Just stickers of children stuck on trash bins. But when 850,000 of them hit the streets every week, that's basically the biggest billboard in town.
リクルート フロム・エー ナビ | 熱唱 | 2016
Right at the start of 2016, a new series for From A Navi kicked off with a back-and-forth between Mayu Matsuoka and Panda Ichiro. Matsuoka hears Panda Ichiro singing live and blurts out "Tenryu!" - that surreal moment was the best part.
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.
John Lewis | Buster The Boxer | 2016
John Lewis's annual Christmas ad is a tradition by now. The star of 2016 is a dog named Buster. He wants, more than anything, the trampoline hidden in the garden—but it's actually a present for a little girl named Bridget. Night after night, wild animals sneak out to bounce on it, and Buster just watches. On Christmas morning, it's Buster who bolts outside before the girl even gets there.
JR東日本 | 北海道新幹線開業 | 2016
I caught this 30-second spot on TV after a long while of not watching, and it made me go "oh!" For a boy, the shinkansen coming to his town is super big news—he can't just sit still, and before he knows it, his body is already moving. That's the feeling this ad captures.
ROAD SAFETY AWARENESS CAMPAIGN | SAFE & SOUND MUSIC PLAYER | 2016
For people who love walking while listening to music, there's an app built with one simple wish: that they stay alive.
カロリーメイト | Mate | 2016
There are friends, all born in 1991, who shave their heads, run, show each other their backs as they go, and laugh — and just that is already a complete piece of film. There's a series like that.
江崎グリコ | Smile.Glico みんなとハグハグ篇 | 2016
A character called Hug Hug goes around hugging people all over the world. Watching the smiles spread from person to person, you can feel something inside you loosen up.
HEAD & SHOULDERS | 100% Kosher Head & Shoulders | 2016
They bought up the entire domestic stock of Passover cleaning kits and slipped dandruff test strips inside. An ad that uses a religious ritual as its medium — you really don't see that every day.
BEYONCE | FORMATION | 2016
On 2/6/2016, the night before the Super Bowl, a five-minute video dropped on the world without warning, opening with Beyoncé sitting on top of a New Orleans police car sinking in floodwater. With no corporate brand attached to it at all, this piece became the first-ever Cannes Grand Prix winner in the music category.
カップヌードル | OBAKA's UNIVERSITY | 2016
The first installment got pulled off air just one week after it sparked backlash online. But Nissin didn't stop there—two months later, they brought back Beat Takeshi and Sachiko Kobayashi for another round. Has any brand in Japanese advertising ever shown such a bold "fight back" attitude?
LA SIRENA | END THE SILENCE | 2016
A live news anchor appeared on air with a bruise on her face, as if she'd been hit. Viewers were stunned. But it wasn't an accident or an incident — it was a live on-air intervention staged by a supermarket chain.
Nike | Unlimited You | 2016
It starts out like your typical brand film: a warm narrator's voice, a child growing into an athlete. But the moment a gymnast rips through the "The End" logo, this ad becomes something else entirely.
NYT VR | THE DISPLACED | 2016
The New York Times tucked one million Google Cardboard viewers into copies of its Sunday paper. Inside was an 11-minute VR documentary called "THE DISPLACED." Readers who opened it up found themselves standing right in the middle of a refugee camp. The following year, it won two Grand Prix at Cannes.
BROOKE BOND RED LABEL TEA | 6 PACK BAND | 2016
In 2016, an Indian tea brand teamed up with a transgender band of six. The reason it won the Grand Prix at Cannes comes down to this: the women weren't filmed as people to feel sorry for.
SAVE THE CHILDREN & SANTILLANA | Paper Glasses | 2016
You open your textbook, and there's a pair of glasses waiting for you. They're made of paper, and they can even test your eyesight. It's so simple it's almost moving.
Channel 4 | We're The Superhumans | 2016
A mother with no arms holds her baby with her feet. Kids with prosthetic legs play soccer. A woman flies a plane with her feet. For three straight minutes, it just keeps going like this. It won the Film Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2017, and racked up 23 million views in just four days. It hits just as hard no matter how many times you watch it.