If you are a fan of overseas commercials you are in for a treat — The World's CM Festival is coming back to Osaka on Nov. 20.
This annual event first started in Paris in 1981 as La Nuit des Publiviores (Night of the Ad Eaters) and has been held in Japan since 1999 and in Osaka since 2002.
On Nov. 20, around 500 commercials from some 50 countries will be shown on a big screen at Osaka Kosei Nenkin Kaikan Hall in Nishi Ward from 10:30 p.m. till 5:30 a.m. the next morning.
The commercials will include Microsoft ads starring Bill Gates and actor Jerry Seinfeld, and T-Mobile's popular flash-mob commercial, which featured around 400 dancers at Liverpool Street Station in England. Japanese and/or English subtitles will be shown for the ads.
The screening of advertisements is not the only entertainment in this seven-hour-long party. Everyone will get a complimentary "pachi pachi," a toy that makes clapping sounds, to applaud bands when they perform live during intermissions. At 3 a.m., there will be a drawing to win prizes.
This festival has been to 11 Japanese cities this year, but Osaka's is the biggest in scale (last year it attracted 2,500 people), and will, no doubt, be the noisiest.
The World's CM Festival takes place Nov. 20. Tickets cost ¥4,300 for reserved seats and ¥3,500 for nonreserved seats. Tickets cost ¥4,000 at the door. For more information, call (092) 843-7370, or visit www.cmfestival.com/
