Sparks Fly in Diesel's Wall-Breaking Campaign from Geometry Global Japan

Diesel recently launched a short film “The Walls”, a part of its global campaign “Make Love Not Walls”, in partnership with Geometry Global Japan. In this new spot, the agency adopted a Japanese interpretation to visualise “walls” that need to be torn down.  

The film starts with a bird’s view over Tokyo at night. The Tokyo Tower in the centre completes the city’s look – glamorous, refined and urbane. Three 'Love Soldiers' appear, aimed at breaking down mental and physical walls. 

Three scenes symbolising walls are set up – all very familiar to a Japanese audience. The film opens with a shot of a businessman arriving hurriedly to a standing soba noodle shop. He is clearly in a rush continuously checking his phone, with his phone constantly going off with sounds of new messages arriving. A girl singing a love song in a solo karaoke booth. Midway through the song she stops singing with a lonely look on her face. Two boys walking down the street together, one of the boys is attempting to put his arm around the other with the other boy pulling away looking uncomfortable.

Mr. Hitoshi Kato, Senior Vice President Marketing & Communication of DIESEL JAPAN CO.,LTD, said, “The first thing we considered when planning to localise this global campaign was the importance of making it relevant and suitable for the Japanese market. The stronger the message is, the more need there is for communications to be based on a real understanding of the local market, of the situation it is in at that particular point in time. Unless the work is created/adapted and deployed based on this understanding, there will not be many people who understand or empathise with it. What was challenging was how to localise the work while still keeping the tone and manner of the global campaign, and this was something we discussed at considerable length with the Geometry team. There were significant changes made from the original direction during the project, and the time frame was limited. However, I believe the team produced high-quality work. Also, the Geometry team who worked on this project have a very good understanding of our aims/preferences and ways of thinking, so it was very easy for us to collaborate and work with this team. True, it was tough work, but we had fun working together.”

Commenting on this film, Masato Mitsudera, ECD of Geometry Global Japan, said, “We aim to show that Diesel is on the frontline of creating a society we want to live in, where anyone can love anyone. The message that this video delivers is to break down the invisible walls that divide people. We hope it creates dialogue about the diversity of love, and make people feel more positive about it.”