Aiwaworld Project Featured on CommArts's "Design Interact" Online

March 04, 2005

The Topsy-Turvy World of AIWA
-Joe Shepter

Advertising with A Purpose

The recent AIWA site could be considered a throwback to the bad old days of the Web. Three studios build a topsy-turvy world featuring crazy characters and the work of illustrators with names like Mumbleboy and Tokyo Plastic.

According to its creators, however, this project is something more.

"Things are a little different than in the dotcom era," says David Lai of Hello Design, "in a sense you can't create these crazy sites and just say how cool they are. I think if you look where advertising is going...it has to be with purpose."

In this case, the purpose was a self-conscious branding and eyeball-grabbing effort for AIWA, an electronics manufacturer and a new division of Sony. The company and its advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy decided to create some buzz around its new youthful identity, using a mix of audio and visual entertainment.

Read the full article here.