Commercial: Tribute to Bach: October 1, 2011

Earlier this year, Sharp Electronics introduced a dazzling commercial to promote its new Touch Wood SH-O8C cell phone, featuring the music of J.S. Bach. The commercial featured an elaborate construction of hundreds of individually shaped and precisely tuned wooden bars – an enormous xylophone, if you will – placed on a gradually sloped hillside in a Japanese forest. With a background of flowing water and chirping birds, a wooden ball descends hundreds of feet across these bars, sounding out the obbligato melody from Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” (from Cantata No.147). The results are both impressive and quite moving. How this promoted sales, we’re not sure, but it sure got our attention – and admiration. Tell us what you think!

Touch Wood SH-08C commercial featuring J.S. Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"