Space Chair
a frame from Space Chair
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| Agency | Grey London |
|---|---|
| Client | Toshiba |
| Language | English |
| Running time | 60 seconds |
| Product | |
| Release date(s) | November 16, 2009 |
| Directed by | Andy Amadeo |
| Production company |
Hungry Man |
| Produced by | Matt Buels |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Budget | £3,000,000 (campaign) |
| Preceded by | Time Sculpture |
| Official website | http://www.toshiba.co.uk/innovation |
Space Chair is a British television and cinema advertisement launched by Toshiba in 2009 to promote its Regza SD LCD televisions. The 60-second piece, following the launch of an armchair into near space attached to a weather balloon, is the second in the "Projects" campaign, following on from Time Sculpture. The launch, which reached 98,268 feet (29,952 m), set a world record for Highest High-Definition Television Commercial. Space Chair premiered on European and Japanese television on 16 November 2009.
The piece opens with a panning shot across a bleak desert, the Sun low over a mountain range on the horizon. Electronic swells play on the soundtrack over the ambient noise; there is no speech. In the foreground is an armchair with orange upholstery. This cuts to an overhead shot taken from above the chair as a team of handlers release it, and then to a shot revealing the balloon the chair is attached to. A series of beeps from the GPS tracker begins to sound as the chair rises from the ground, and a sequence of shots from on board the balloon rig show the contraption climbing higher and higher above the ground. A car races across the desert below, raising clouds of dust. As the altitude of the chair rises, the wind begins to whistle and the curvature of the Earth becomes apparent. The chair rises to the very edge of space, and the campaign strapline, "Armchair viewing, redefined" appears as the view withdraws to show the advertised product (an LCD television or a laptop, depending on the version) and the Toshiba logo. In the closing seconds of the piece, the camera cuts back to the chair as the balloon shatters with an audible pop and the chair begins to disintegrate as it falls to the ground.
In latter part of the 2000s, Toshiba were engaged in the high definition optical disc format war, in which it supported the HD DVD format. In 2007, Toshiba decided to consolidate its European advertising ventures with a single advertising agency, where previously it had split its £25,000,000 marketing budget between Lowe, Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey Global Group and Young & Rubicam. In June 2007, Grey won the account with a pitch based around emphasising Toshiba's history in research and development, pushing the company's image as an "innovator in the field". The first television and cinema commercial from the partnership, Light, lighter, aired in January 2008, to a lukewarm reception.
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