The Campaign

We created ‘Dentapple’, an apple with a dental test service that enables dental checkup just by biting into the hard apple made in Matsumoto. By answering to questions regarding the pain or discomfort from biting the apple through your smartphone, dentists will diagnose the health and risk of your teeth. When there’s pain biting an apple, there may be a risk for cavity. If it bleeds, there’s a risk for gum disease. If the jaw feels loose, a risk for jaw arthritis. Based on these symptoms, you will know the dental risks.

Creative Execution

The dental checkup using the Dentapple is very simple. First, authorize the sticker on the apple through a smartphone app. Bite into the apple by following the navigation. Answer questions as to whether you felt the pain when biting the apple, and send the picture. The information will be diagnosed by associated dentists, and you will receive a diagnosis within 24 hours. If you feel unsure about the diagnose, you can always make a reservation to your nearest dentist through GPS. This ‘dental diagnosis apple’ started to go on the market on November 8th, the day to commemorate “Good Teeth Day” in Japan. It was shipped out to many stores, and instantly gathered people’s attention.

Dentapple spread throughout Japan as an apple that connected a delicious apple and dental health as a “yummy dental checkup.” This innovation by farmers made coverage throughout various media, and as a result received over 5 million dollars in media exposure. Dentapple flew out of stores as an easy dental checkup, and sales of the apples from Matsumoto went up 155% from last year. Furthermore, the Japan Dentistry Hygiene’s Association officially certified the Dentapple as the first ever agricultural crop which has made companies and schools to consider introducing this as an easy way for dental diagnosis. “Apples connected to Mobile” raised the Japanese people’s awareness of dental health greatly. It also made headlines throughout the world, and Dentapple widened the market outside of Japan. As of today, Dentapples are sold in 6 countries, mainly in Asia.

From old times, it has been a symbol for excellent teeth to be able to bite a whole hard apple from a cold region in Japan. In fact, that is a commonly used way to express healthy teeth in many dental TV commercials. On the other hand, Japan has a world-class cavity population and more than 80 % of the nation have some kind of dental issues. But ‘Busy Japanese’ do not have the time to get regular dental checkup. So we created ‘Dentapple’, an apple with a dental test service that enables dental checkup just by biting into the hard apple made in Matsumoto.