Summer is upon us, and in Japan this is the season especially when beverage makers pull out all the stops to promote their products. Popular Japanese sports drink Pocari Sweat has always been known for their highly innovative and elaborate summer commercials, and this year’s spot titled “I Don’t Need No Wings ( to fly ) – 羽はいらない” is fantastic as always. Check it out below –

There is also a highly entertaining and insightful making of feature that shows us how the commercial was shot –

While I certainly applaud the inventiveness and most impressive logistics of the shoot where the practical effects of the cloud is achieve in camera, as a visual effects artist I do wonder if a CGI version would have generated better results for the final, finished product. Or perhaps the collective effort of creating all the visual effects in camera ( mostly ) is the more important end goal / selling point ?

In any case, I look forward to Pocari Sweat’s next big commercial, which will always be a visual spectacle to behold !