ALSOK is a company that provides various security and insurance services. Since early last year, they hired the well known Japanese figure, Saori Yoshida, a female wrestler who won World Championship of Women’s Wrestling for 10 consecutive years (as well as winning two consecutive Olympic Gold Medals), ALSOK became a product that imprints in everyone’s mind, a household name. The commercial adopted the form of a song and signal that average consumers are familiar with. They looked for the perfect endorsement person with ‘security guarantee’ as product feature. The commercial was made into a music video to ‘brainwash’ the consumers.
ALSOK Song of 2011
I have only seen their commercial song of 2011 and 2012 (1, 2, 3, 4, ALSOK) once, but I could sing along with the commercial even as a foreigner who doesn’t speak Japanese. Does that mean my Japanese has improved? Of course not, the matter of the fact is, ‘brainwashing’ transcends borders. It has nothing to do with the language, if you have the right tune and scenes, you can easily brainwash people even if language barrier exists!
ALSOK Song of 2012
Looking at the commercial, the agile Saori Yoshida was the metaphor for the warrior that protects people’s safety. The feature of the product was embodied by the song which is a brilliant way for consumers to remember the features of the product!
In the ALSOK song of 2011, the tone, manner, special effect and the deliberately recreated Kamen Rider series, all carry a kind of retro-fun element. Through the visual effect of ‘Kamen Rider’ to strengthen the ‘protection’ and ‘security’ image of the brand. In this year’s 1,2,3,4 ALSOK Song (2012), the ‘warrior’ came out from the much worshiped role, and blended in with the residents. Singing along with renowned Japanese sights and mascots, when Saori Yoshida and Kaori Icho talked to the camera, I had no doubt about the product and believed 100% the sincerity of these two spokespersons.
ALSOK Song of 2012, Behind the Scene
In addition, there was another video about the behind the scene of ALSOK 2012 commercial which we could learn about the masterful skills of image synthesis. Synthesis challenges the legitimacy of ‘lighting’ and ‘view angle’. Watching this behind the scene video, you’d realize that almost all the commercial settings were synthesized, especially the dancing scene in the tatami room. If you didn’t watch this behind the scene video, you would’ve thought that they recreated the scene in the studio, but in fact, it was synthesized by green screen. In the commercial, the ‘view angle’ of the camera is almost still, which means there was not zoom in and out, no dolly in and out, and no panning. The purpose of this actually helps to legitimize the view angle and lowers the production cost. They didn’t even have to install expensive equipment such as motion control (capture). They covered the ‘view angle’, and in terms of the ‘lighting’, you could see that in the video they made the color of the light ‘flat’ and lowered the color scale so it lacked in level but still created contrasts which made up for visual rationality.
They did a bang up job on synthesis, redirecting people’s attention on the dance and their ears on the song, which makes this an effective, brainwashing commercial.
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About Author
Bruce
Bruce participated in various domestic and international commercial production, film launch and theater marketing; worked in creative script team of Beijing Branch, Densu Group (Japan); worked as a director for Gamania. He currently served as section manager in product development department in GJP.
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