This is literally out of this world. Toshiba’s agency in London, Grey, collaborated with The Mill to film the world’s highest commercial, shot 98,000 feet above Nevada’s Black Rock desert.
To make this possible they attached a high altitude helium balloon to a biodegradable chair, fitted the balloon with a rig complete with 8 Toshiba HD IK-HR1S camcorders and 4 GPS units to tack the position and altitude of the Chair, then in the middle of the desert they let it fly. The balsa wood chair and rig flew to 98,268 feet before the balloon burst and the chair tumbled back to earth at max speeds of a little over mach 1 !
The tag line is great; “Armchair viewing, redefined”, and the commercial also fits in well with Toshiba’s core slogan “Leading innovation”. The ad was made to help publicise the new Regza-LCD-TV range. Click here to see the making of the ad video.
Stats
- The chair is made of biodegradable balsa wood at a cost of about £2,500.
- The balloon was launched from the Black Rock desert in Nevada.
- The chair took 83 minutes to reach the lofty altitude and fell back to earth in just 24 minutes.
- The temperature dropped to minus 90 degrees at 52,037 feet.
- Four different GPS systems were attached to the rig to accurately record its height.
- The ad was shot by cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, who also worked on Mamma Mia!