Webquest: Big In Japan

Task

Sell-Out Productions is a company based in Tokyo that specialises in making T.V commercials. It was founded in 1974 by the entrepreneur Kenichi Kun, the man who helped to reinvent the concept of the T.V commercial by casting 70's Hollywood star David Soul in a commercial for toothpaste. Before this time there had only been one T.V. commercial that used a western celebrity to advertise its product, that was Charles Bronson for hair-cream product 'Mandom'.

Sell-Out Prouctions enjoyed the economic boom of the 80's with their long-running commercial for Mouthwash starring John Travolta. However, the economic recession of the 90's and a few 'turkeys'(bad commercials) put 'Sell-Out' in serious financial trouble. In 2004, without a hit-commercial for many years now and falling share prices, things have become much worse and 'Sell-Out' look to be on the verge of going bankrupt.

They have one last chance of survival. They have been recently commissioned to make a T.V. commercial for Dentsu, the No.1 advertising company in Japan. Here is a last chance for them to produce a great T.V. commercial and save the company. With so much depending on the success of this T.V. commercial they don't want to risk making another lame-duck (turkey). So they have turned to you and your team of professionals to produce the commercial for them. The only requirements are that it must be in English, it must include a western celebrity and it must be very memorable.

Can you rise to the challenge and save Sell-Out from bankruptcy?

You will have to go through these two stages...

Research - reading about this industry, viewing adverts, analysing scripts

Production - designing a T.V commercial, presenting it to Dentsu bosses

Back	Next