Self-initiated concept · our own brief, our own brand
The morning after
After every typhoon, a field of dead umbrellas appears at a Tokyo station exit — each one with an obituary.
The brief
The problem
Clear convenience-store umbrellas are so cheap that nobody thinks about buying a good one. A ¥4,800 umbrella sounds absurd — until the third one dies in a gust.
The insight
The morning after a typhoon, Tokyo’s bins are full of broken umbrellas. Everyone has seen it; nobody has mourned them.
The idea
Hold a funeral. On the morning after each typhoon, the broken umbrellas collected from station bins are planted at the exit, each tagged with where it died, how long it lived and which gust took it. Bring a broken one and swap it for a HONE.
How it works
It only runs when the weather says so, which makes it news, not an ad. The tags are the shareable unit: people photograph the obituaries. The swap booth turns the joke into trial, and the broken canopies become the sleeve of the swap card, so you take the old one home as packaging.
What we would make
- The field
120 tagged umbrellas at a station exit from 07:00 to 18:00, gone by evening. - The obituaries
Hand-written tags: “Lived 11 minutes. Cause of death: building wind.” - Swap booth
Bring a broken umbrella, leave with a HONE. First 300 per morning.
What we would measure
- Umbrellas swapped per typhoon morning
- Photos of the tags shared, by station
- Search for “折れない傘” in the 48 h after each typhoon
- Repeat visits to the next morning-after site