Two weeks ago, a friend faxed me an article from the weekly news magazine Aera about a new advertising trend called "collaboration CF," which is the selling of two different companies' products in one TV commercial. I had already read about collaborations two days earlier in advertising critic Yukichi Amano's column in the Asahi Shimbun.
Amano had described the same commercial covered in the Aera article and went on to explain that the appeal of collaborations is obvious since "as viewers, we tend to notice things in a commercial other than the product being sold." What makes collaborations new is that these other things are now meant to be noticed.
The commercial in question is for Suntory's new canned coffee, Boss HG. It is the latest in a series of spots featuring actor Masatoshi Nagase as a salaryman being chased by a mysterious figure in leather, played by guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei. In the collaboration spot, Nagase is in a dark place hiding from Hotei. He pushes a flashing red button and is catapulted onto a stage where the J-Pop group Chemistry is singing their latest single "You Go Your Way." Chemistry is the other "product" being advertised here.