Jackie Chan and Kirin make a man's kung-fu dreams come true

Nodogoshi-Nama is a 'third category' beer, which in Japan refers to beer-like drink made without malt, resulting in an alcoholic beverage that tastes like beer but avoids the high beer tax. In Nodogoshi's case, it is made with soy protein and is a market leader in this category. 

The Kirin-owned brand's beer-aspirations have perhaps motivated Nodogoshi-Nama to launch its ongoing campaign 'Nodogoshi makes your dream of the dream come true"'. Via a website, the brand invites consumers to submit their dreams, which it will then strive to make come true.

The first round of the campaign was held in October 2012, with the first film released in January. The round attracted 35,000 submissions, out of which Riki Terashima's dream to "become a pro-wrestler and compete with the legend Riki Choshu” was brought to life. 

To select the lucky individual, both client and agency made a shortlist of 30 people who were then invited to interviews. The 'star' was chosen based on many factors, including enthusiasm and the concreteness of each wish.

The campaign has been gaining momentum after Machiko Nobu's dream to play in a famous Japanese rock band, The Alfee, as a backing band in a one-time performance came true. Takae Ozawa's dream to eat with sumo wrestlers and have her favourite one cook for her, and Hiroshi Yamada's rather unusual wish to don a wig and have his photo taken by professionals were selected from 37,000 entries. 

In the latest film ad (the fourth) however, it is clear that Nodogoshi and its agency team at Dentsu have outdone themselves. Out of 55,000 applicants, they chose the extremely detailed wish-list of Kazuhiro Ishida, who wanted to star in a kung-fu movie and co-star with Jackie Chan and to have that movie fulfil a list of 39 wishes. 

Realising that a 30-second spot wasn't going to cut it, the brand and agency went whole hog and created a 390-second film complete with Jackie Chan, Ishida's requested leading lady Shoko Nagawa (better known as Shokotan) (dream number three), who makes a cute face (dream 27) and does battle with Ishida's buddy from university (dream four) to a stirring soundtrack that chants his name (surprisingly, not a dream on the list, but a nice touch). 

Of course Ishida's dream was only really made possible because Jackie Chan agreed to all this. It seems the great man had no interest in endorsing the beer-like beverage, but took part because he was "moved by Ishida-san's dream and enthusiasm". 

Since the film (posted above) went live on YouTube in early June, it has gone viral, with the 180-second version attracting 1.2 million views, the making of film drawing more than 600,000 views and the 390-second full movie getting nearly 500,000 views. And that's without English subtitles (the subtitled version we have was released first to Campaign Asia-Pacific).

The campaign is ongoing with no set end date, said a spokesperson for Nodogoshi-Nama. "We will continue to do our very best to support the Nodogoshi-Nama fans in fulfilling their wishes. ”

Creative Credits

ECD: Ichiro Kamata (Kamata Ad.)
Copywriters: Takuya Ishojima (Dentsu Inc.), Yukio Hashiguchi (Dentsu Inc.)
Art Directors: Atsushi Oogi (Dentsu Inc.), Satoru Iwashita (Dentsu Inc.), Hikaru Nishida (Dentsu Inc.)
TVC planner: Makoto Shinohara (Dentsu Inc.)
Creative Producers (Dentsu Inc.): Makiko Kusakabe, Yuji Yamaguchi, Takuma Suga
Director: Tsugihisa Tanaka
Producers (TYO Productions 1): Takehisa Asahina, Kyoichi Shibukawa