The nature documentary, as a form, has traditionally concerned itself with the migration patterns of wildebeest and the mating rituals of exotic birds. Asics, the Japanese athletic footwear company, would like to redirect that lens somewhat closer to home.
In a 10-minute film released ahead of World Mental Health Day, the company enlisted Sigourney Weaver — whose previous encounters with hostile life forms have been rather more extraterrestrial — to narrate a mock documentary called "Human Nature." The subjects under observation are not Arctic fauna but rather office workers, couch-bound streaming enthusiasts and victims of what the film identifies as "the most relentless predator in his environment": the algorithm.
The campaign, created by Golin Ketchum London and directed by Rob Leggatt, takes the visual grammar of a prestige nature program and applies it to the modern sedentary lifestyle. One character, Janet, exists primarily in her cubicle, trapped in an endless cycle of video calls. Another, Hannah, has nested on her sofa amid a constellation of screens. (The tone suggests we are meant to recognize ourselves, which is perhaps the darkest joke of all.)
Asics has backed the effort with research it calls a Movement Conservation Report, drawing on a survey of 34,000 people across 31 countries. The findings will not startle anyone who has observed contemporary life: 53 percent of adults fail to meet recommended physical activity guidelines, and nearly one in four exercise less than 30 minutes weekly.
"We're born to move, but modern convenience culture is making us increasingly sedentary," Al Wood, chief creative officer at Golin Ketchum, said in a statement. "It's all become a little ridiculous."
The film ends, as such things must, with hope — specifically, the suggestion that 15 minutes of daily movement might constitute a kind of salvation. Asics, which has spent more than 75 years in the business of selling shoes to people who move, would naturally be inclined toward that conclusion.
Whether viewers will rise from their couches in response remains, as Sir David Attenborough might say, a matter for further observation.
Original story published in adweek.com: "Asics Enlists Sigourney Weaver to Document Habits of the Couch-Bound Human"