“Parco Says” 2005

This advertisement was designed for Parco in 2005 by Michihiko Yanai. Yanai was born in Fukushima Prefecture in 1964. They graduated from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1990 and started working at Hakuhodo in the same year. They are the guitarist of the band, “Inawashiro Kozu”. Yanai teaches at their old school Tokyo University of the Arts in the design department.

Parco Says is a piece that consists of a photograph with text and several speech bubbles with handwritten text in them. The famous Japanese singer Kimura Kaira is the star of the promotion. The phrases in the speech bubbles are “Which is easier? Finding yourself or finding your clothes?”, “If you smile at people the same number of times you look at your phone, you can make more friends.”, "Would you rather be strong and insensitive or weak and fragile"?", and “It's okay if you're not 170 cm tall!” All of these phrases are supposed to represent the everyday conversations of young people. The colorful, handwritten letters and eccentric style of Kimura Kaira emulate the playful spirit of the Japanese youth.