Friday, July 12, 2013

Touch Wood

Be amazed at the level of creativity we humans can possess. Even if you have the ideas, its the tenacious execution that is just as if not more difficult. The amount of work for just a commercial and it probably wasn't cheap at all. The entire concept rides on the theme "touch wood", as in when you are holding your phone. NTT came up with a kidney shaped phone with a wooden back cover, very elegant. The advertising pitch was to bring the one-ness of wood in its natural environment, the forest. The branding is exceptional.

Touch Wood in a Japanese Forest with Bach

Go to the woods of Kyushu, Japan. Engineer a massive xylophone (or is it a marimba?) to run down the slope of a forested hill. Take a wooden ball, place it at the top of said instrument, and push it. What do you get? Bach's treatment of a traditional church hymn! Namely, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."



 And, all this for a Japanese commercial for a kidney-shaped smartphone with the tagline, "Touch Wood." I may be late to the party on this one, but when I think of all the time it took to set this up, the precision and measurements used to adjust it and actually make each piece, and how many takes the film crew shot, it continues to inspire even if it's a year old.

And, here you can see how it was made: