Aug. 28 marks the 53rd anniversary of the very first broadcast of a television commercial in Japan, and as a way of commemorating the event TBS has produced a special two-hour drama, "Message" (Monday, 9 p.m.), about Toshi Sugiyama, who is considered the most innovative TV commercial director in the history of Japanese media.
Sugiyama, who worked in the 1960s and early '70s, is credited with inventing the "image" commercial, which did much more than promote a product or service. It created an image for the company being advertised. He won numerous awards, including an international advertising prize at Cannes.
The drama, which stars Naoto Fujiki, shows mainly how Sugiyama worked and his relationship with his brother, who was his cameraman. Sugiyama committed suicide in 1973 at the age of 37. He left a cryptic note saying that his job was to "sell dreams," but that he in fact "had no dreams to sell."