creative expressions in advertising
Tokyo is full of branding and advertising, and every now and then, a poster or video screen catches my eye. I don't feel comfortable calling advertising and branding themselves "forms of art", but I think it's undeniable that some very creative people are often involved in this line of work. Sometimes, the material they produce manages to go beyond the GET EXCITED FOR PRODUCT, NOW level and unfolds its appeal on a more abstract, conceptual level. This is often true for branding or awareness campaigns (or advertising for real high-end luxury products like perfume) which are less concerned with straight-up selling a specific product but transporting images and messages that resonate with people (or rather, the intended target audience). They tend to allow for a wider range of creative expression.
For example, I like the iichiko posters. They're advertising for a brand of shochu, an alcoholic spirit made from sweet potatoes. I've never bought a bottle of iichiko, and I don't intend to. But I like the posters themselves - they do show the product, but as a very small part of a scenery, without any obnoxious claims or branding. They're as close as you can get to just putting up photos of nature photography and still have them be an ad.1 I also tend to like the Muji campaigns that change every year or so, like the one about cleaning.2
Of course, even these "minimal advertising" campaigns have the goal of getting you, as a potential customer, closer to the product. In the case of iichiko, the aim is to capture the attention of people who like this kind of poster - minimalist, nature-focused, "quiet advertising" - and establish a mental connection that leads to them buying a bottle somewhere down the line, or telling other people about the poster who then might buy a bottle. Because of this, even the most elegantly crafted ads are never "innocent." But I think as long as everyone is aware of how they function, it's still possible to appreciate the creative work that goes into them.
This brings me to the real topic of the post that I wanted to write about.1 One of these campaigns that recently caught my eye was one called "New Friends" by Ikebukuro PARCO. PARCO is a chain of department stores / shopping malls in Japan, including locations in Shibuya (the "flagship store"), Kichijoji, Ueno, Sendai, Nagoya, and Hiroshima. The Ikebukuro location is currently undergoing a renovation, with around 80 new shops opening in stages. This goal of the campaign is to call attention to this fact.
The posters (as well as the accompanying video) feature 3DCG animals amidst an abstract collage of nature photography. For the photos, the elements were combined with each other in an analog fashion and then re-photographed through water by placing them under panels of transparent plastic and creating little puddles on top. The animals - the "new friends" - represent the different stores in the mall, with the "pond" motif referencing the name of the location (Ikebukuro contains the kanji for "pond").3
What I like about these posters:
- The colour palette. It looks very "fresh", perfect for the spring and summer season.
- The overall visual style. It feels like a modernised version of Frutiger Aero, mostly due to the transparent water elements and the colours (green and blue = default Windows XP wallpaper).
- The 3DCG animals. I like how they're obviously CG and rather stiff, but still have their own charme. My favourite is the heron; up close (in the video), its feathers look less like feathers and more like the inside of some firm, but juicy fruit ... think nashi pears. Also, the star-like shape of the animal's pupils are an interesting choice.
I don't really care for the new stores that are opening. I think it's mostly going to be fashion shops that I'm never going to step inside. But I still got "something" out of these posters, without even spending a single yen. This is the kind of advertising that I can live with, even if it means that I'm still getting entangled in the strategy behind it (to a degree). I can't escape the system anyway, so I might as well enjoy the aspects that I can arrange myself with.
Took me quite a while. I didn't want to spend too much time justifying myself, but I think the lead-up was still necessary, at least for the first post. If I end up making more posts like this in the future, I think I'll just leave out the long lead-up and link to this post in some kind of disclaimer.↩
Calorie Mate energy bars also frequently get very elaborate video ad campaigns, mostly focusing around high school life. They're very effective in evoking a response of nostalgia in me, but I consider them to be a bit too emotionally manipulative. In the end, it's just a freaking energy bar.↩
While probably not intended that way, I find it interesting that this implies some kind of "food chain" within the department store and competition between the stores: The frog is "higher" than the dragonfly but gets eaten by the heron...↩