The Campaign

Bringing together Japan’s summer tradition of wind chimes with the brand’s global character, the polar bear, we created the “polar bear wind chime”.

Creative Execution

Bringing together Japan’s summer tradition of wind chimes with the brand’s global character, the polar bear, we created the “polar bear wind chime”. The chimes served as advertising for the brand, while also delivering “cool refreshment,” just like the product does. As Maebashi City was known for being one of the hottest places in Japan during summer, the train cars of the city’s local Jomo Railway was decorated with the chimes and turned into a “wind chime train,” so that both the chimes and the trains themselves served to bring a new kind of “cool refreshment” to the local residents. The chimes were handcrafted by the master wind chime maker, one of only two craftsmen in Japan still making Edo glass wind chimes today. The master blew each glass with breath coolly refreshed by HALLS. In this way, each piece of HALLS candy was transformed into a beautiful wind chime.

Indication of how successful the outcome was in the market

The news of the "wind chime train" spread via word-of-mouth and socila media, eventually being picked up by TV and news outlets nationwide. Through Japan's summer tradition of wind chimes, Halls succeeded in making a cool and refreshing contribution to the worldwide problem of global warming.

Since the days when there were no air conditioners, wind chimes were cherished in Japan as a way to alleviate the heat and humidity of the summer months. Made of delicate glass sculpture, the chime’s tinkling sound as it sways in the breeze is thought to resemble the chirping of a cricket and is said to signify the arrival of autumn. For the Japanese people, visual and aural representation of coolness is thought to be as effective as the actual physical feeling of it, so the strategy was for HALLS to deliver a unique kind of cool refreshment by expressing the brand’s concept of “Take a cool breath” through Japan’s time-honored, summer tradition of wind chimes.