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au commercial turns Tokyo into nightclub

18 Comments
By Steven Simonitch

Some Japanese companies are known for making really clever commercials, others are known for making some really dumb commercials (looking at you Sony).

Mobile carrier au (pronounced “A-U”) has proven itself a part of the former camp with its fantastic new commercial, “FULL CONTROL/Xmas”, which shows what Tokyo might look like if it were turned into one giant nightclub.

The commercial advertises au’s new 4G LTE high-speed wireless communication service. 4G LTE is designed to provide up to 10x the speeds of 3G mobile networks and au plans to have the service available to 98% of Japan by March 2013.

The advertising campaign for the service is called “Making surprise the standard”, and the commercial takes a look at what might happen if we could control the sights and sounds of our cities with our smartphones. Somehow we doubt that reality would be as inspiring a picture as the one this commercial paints — I know the first thing I would do with this technology is Rickroll Shibuya Crossing — but it’s still a sweet 60-second clip.

And in case you were wondering, no, they didn’t actually fly a giant disco hot air balloon over Tokyo — though it’s not exactly CG, either. According to the video description, an actual hot air balloon and search lights were used and it took nearly 20 hours in the studio to get the angels of the lights just right.

au is also uploading a series of three videos showing how they made the commercial, the first of which you can check here (the other two haven’t been released at the time of this writing).

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© RocketNews24

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18 Comments
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but it's still illegal to dance.

11 ( +12 / -1 )

Not for long. Lawmakers will buy this phone and start freestylin' around Hachiko.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This commercial isn't that clever, it won't make me buy this.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

So ads are now considered worthy of articles in 'entertainment' . I remember when great TV programmes used to be interupted by annoying ads ...... now that scenario seems to have been flipped .

The idiots are winning !

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Coca Cola could have done or may have already done the same thing.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

but don't they know Tokyo is trying to stamp out dancing at nightclubs?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

@Ewan Huzarmy,

So ads are now considered worthy of articles in 'entertainment' .

Given how 99.9% of JTV ads are delivered with the minimum of artistic consideration - "talents" simply holding the product in their hand whilst spouting the marketing spiel, "cute" women saying everything in unison, or food ads in which everyone proclaims it's "Oishii!" (beer ads are particulalrly bad with their "Wipe your mouth with your arm, smack your lips and say "Kaaaa!" to show how refreshing it is" charade)... And all of them ending with a 2-3 note jingle, I'd say that any attempt at something a bit more creative was worth a few column inches.

Not sure about the cheesy santa DJ though...

4 ( +5 / -1 )

the CM is ok, not great. Ill take a stylish Sekisui house CM or a tomme lee jones BOSS CM anytime over au.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@ kaminarioyaji

This.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Taxi made me laugh.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Ironic: Tokyo as a nightclub featuring people dancing, when it's illegal to dance in nightclubs in Tokyo.

Unoriginal: Daft Punk on a commercial

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

took nearly 20 hours in the studio to get the angels of the lights just right.

which Angels , or you mean Angles?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This is just an in-your-face, energy indulgent, commercial by a pro-nuclear company (KDDI attached to Toyota) that has no respect for the people near Fukushima Daiichi who had to abandon their homes and all the children exposed to radiation. It's all back to business as usual as if 3.11 never occurred and man-made climate change is a hoax.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Seiyu did it first

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xas63mC6AwY

and cheaper

0 ( +0 / -0 )

This commercial is not original at all. It is a blatant rip-off of the Nokia Lumia debut in London. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX2Gd-kqV5s

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Did Tokyo pay the licensing fee to let their buildings party?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

cool commercial, but its not like I could do this if I buy the phone

and the no dancing in nightclubs, what? that's stupid. if they can't dance then they can't be called nightclubs then. thats wrong. but then they have these places where the men go to be served by women, or the other way around (forgot whats it called) and get drunk.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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