DoCoMo ad aired once only but impressed many
Entertainment ( 12 )
TOKYO —
In this little-seen commercial for DoCoMo, a ball rolls down many wooden boards in a forest, making the melody “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” composed by Johann Sebastian Bach.
This commercial’s title is “Wooden xylophone in the forest” and it aired on TV at the same time as the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. It aired only once because of the disaster.
The commercial impressed not only Japanese viewers but also many people in other countries. Comments on YouTube included “I cannot stop crying,” “I want this mobile phone,” and “I cannot believe that this commercial played just one time.”
The mobile phone’s name is “Touch Wood.”
Japan Today
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12 Comments
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shirokuma2011
I saw this on YouTube a couple of months ago--didn't make me cry, but it was a pretty impressive feat nevertheless!!!
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smithinjapan
Why did they stop airing it because of the disaster? Once again I'm a little baffled as to what continued to get airplay or play in theaters and what did not. It sounds like a moving, heartfelt, and for a change truly imaginative commercial.
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combinibento
Touch Wood?? LOL!!!! Who is the marketing genius that came up with that gem!?
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as_the_crow_flies
This is totally a## backwards. If you:re going to have ads on TV at a time like the disasters, I can't think of a more appropriate one. One of Bach's great, uplifting pieces, and a beautiful idea, a beautiful piece of filming. Instead we got those awful irritating AC ads for nothing in particular, and some bloke who had a stroke telling us some enigmatic message in a language 99.9999% of viewers wouldn't understand. And now we're back to cr#p so awful people are turning off in droves all over Japan, spurred on no doubt by all that's happened over the last few months and making the most of the switch to digital to kick the habit and do something better with their lives.
I also don't understand why they didn't start using this ad again after a couple of months. It must have cost a fortune to make, and surely the message, whatever the ad people may think the message actually is, must still be relevant. No?
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warnerbro
Somebody at Docomo should consult a dictionary of American slang
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JapanGal
@warnerbro: funny, but should that be touch woody instead?
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bicultural
Wow, amazing commercial.
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Tomasz Stasinski
it's a memorable commercial but rather ineffective. I, for one, was convinced it was a campaign for an AU handset.
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Oracle
That is actually a wooden xylophone dude, not a mobile phone.
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neebong
Genius advert!!
Makes you think of the really good Honda-Cog one a few years back!
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It"S ME
You mean like that car-advert, where they used all the parts of the car to build a "Pitakora-Switch" style display.
Both are great but the car one rules, IMHO.
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neebong
Yeah thats the one! Honda did a web campaign when it was on TV.. Ive got a DVD which was sent out somewhere!
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