Cannes Contenders: Japan
Takayuki Niizawa, CCO at Wunderman Thompson Tokyo, picks some of the Japanese work he thinks might pick up metal in Cannes next week, including artwork by dogs and manga-revealing milk.
PieceWanko Barksy
Surprisingly, the issue of shelter dogs is still under-recognised in Japan, with many dogs being killed every day and the finances of shelters being tight. Wunderman Thompson Tokyo and PieceWanko, Japan’s famous dog protection organisation, has created a sustainable model to solve this problem by selling art made from dogs' signature 'pee'. The art is also sold as an NFT (NFPee!), and artist dogs are being born one after another.
Credits
powered byShellmet
Discarded scallop shells had become a social problem. So, we made a helmet called 'Shellmet', using scallop shells as an alternative material to plastic.... It sounds like a joke but, actually, it spread, the local village received inquiries from all over the world and it was recognised as the official helmet of the World Expo2025!
Credits
powered bySony PlayStation Play Has No Limits feat. Kenshi Yonezu
The charismatic artist of Generation Z, whose face the world has never seen, dives into the world of PlayStation gaming. This campaign, from Six Inc Tokyo, makes you feel like you are part of the game just by watching it, has won Grand at Clio Entertainment and Gold at Spikes Asia.
Credits
powered bySeki Milk MilkManga
Milk is always served at school lunches in elementary school, and I remember having a hard time drinking it. MilkManga is a fun four-frame cartoon drawn on a milk bottle, which you cannot read until you finish drinking the milk. I wish such a fun initiative, from Geometry Ogilvy Japan, had existed when I was a child.