SKYN Gives a Whole New Meaning to the Term ‘Blind Date’ in New Christmas Campaign

Celebrating Christmas in Japan is a little different to other parts of the world. The holiday is a romantic one, deemed a precursor to Valentine's Day, much less about family, more about lovers. For their 2023 Christmas campaign, condom brand SKYN gives a whole new meaning to the ‘Blind Date’ - a romantic meeting between two people who have never met before - and sent a single man and woman, both looking for partners, on a blind date blindfolded. 

Created by independent creative agency, UltraSuperNew Tokyo, Real Blind Date is a social campaign running on social media channel X and OOH. It aims to dispel those pre conceived, superficial judgements based on looks which can be detrimental to the dating process and hinder the opportunity to find love and intimacy. 

Hannah, 23 and You, 20 were matched together during an audition. The types of partners they were attracted to were completely opposite, Hannah only dates older men with long hair. Whilst only 20 years old, You is deemed mature for his age and has been previously attracted to girls of a more introverted nature.

Because they were blindfolded all day on their date, Hannah and You’s other senses were heightened. They could taste, smell and feel more than usual. They were also somehow able to sense each other and visualise if they were smiling or feeling nervous. As the day progressed, and physical touch increased, they became emotionally close to one another. Compared to the beginning, where they were both more guarded, their facial expressions also became softer as well and they seemed to genuinely enjoy each other’s company. At the end, when asked what they thought of their date, with a bit of a shy expression, they both said they are attracted to each other.

Annie Hou, associate director sales & marketing, MAM Lifestyles said, "For this campaign we needed to emphasise the true essence of what makes SKYN special; the softness. We believe couples attract each other not only on a superficial level, but more so on a deeper level. The glue that really keeps the two closer and together are kindness and thoughtfulness they share with each other, in other words, “the softer sides”. We were excited when we witnessed the two strangers come closer, when those qualities were shown from both sides through this experiment."

Yousuke Ozawa, creative director, UltraSuperNew added, "Although “looks” plays an important role, we wanted to emphasise the importance of interpersonal compatibility, which tends to be ignored sometimes.

What was interesting is, during the experiment, the more they spent time with one another they were visibly and emotionally getting close to each other. We also made some ground rules, where they couldn’t talk about certain topics, like age and occupation, just so the conversation can focus on understanding who they both are."

The campaign will run until from today until 24th December.