Toshiba 'Space Chair' ad redefines armchair viewing (video)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted November 16th 2009 6:15AM
posted November 16th 2009 6:15AM
There's something wrong when an advertisement is more memorable than the product. Nevertheless, here we have Toshiba's Space Chair ad campaign promoting its new 2010 REGZA SV LCD TV series, Toshiba's first with LED backlight and local dimming. The campaign will later expand to include a second take featuring the Satellite T Series of 11-hour CULV laptops set for introduction in 2010. The ad follows the journey of "an ordinary living room chair" to the edge of space before falling back to Earth where the ground crew relied upon a GPS beacon to locate the craft. A few facts about the shoot:
- A helium balloon lifted the chair and Toshiba's own IK-HR1S ultra-compact 1080i camera to a height of 98,268 feet above terra firma
- FAA regulations required that the weight of the rig had to be less than four pounds
- The chair is made of biodegradable balsa wood at a cost of about £2,500
- The rig was launched in Nevada's
Burning ManBlack Rock desert - The temperature dropped to minus 90 degrees at 52,037 feet
- The chair took 83 minutes to reach an altitude of 98,268 feet and just 24 minutes to fall back to earth
At minus 90 degrees, it's a pretty good commercial for the camera too.
That's what I was thinking... go figure an actual product test would have a better impact on my purchase choice than a $2.5k balsa wood chair.
90 degrees C or F?
yeah, cos my next camera has to survive me in a spacewalk...
same p.o.v. as master chief at begining of H3
If that camera were 1080p I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
and the original idea goes to....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVwWJZ2Oc58
Good catch!
Noteworthy Firsts (in usual order of achievement):
* The first time someone does something
* The first time an American does the same thing
* The first time an American in a silly costume does the same thing
* The first time a bunch of elementary school children does the same thing
* The first time an ad bureau does it
I'm impressed!
We're really flattered that Toshiba recognise the innovation that an artist like Simon Faithful brings to the world of creative possibility. In 2004 we at The Arts Catalyst could see the ground-breaking work he makes? and commissioned his Escape Vehicle No 6 film - you'll find it on YouTube under ARTSCAT - and we managed this on a budget of just £5000.
Working at the boundary of science and art, imagination and possibility is just what The Arts Catalyst does everyday! And we'd love to see the artist and The Arts Catalyst get the credit they deserve for backing innovation.
Actually original idea is here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrBZeWjGjl8
Don't know if anyone noticed this, but I believe that the Groom Lake facility (Area 51) is below that chair. You can pick out the very large runway that goes across the dried lake.
Never mind, I'm wrong. Black Rock desert is on the other side of the state.
This is the same experience I had with my Toshiba TV. Everything is going great, good picture, out of this world experience, then suddenly baaam all hell brocks loose and it’s never seemed the same after repair.
Does seem like an expensive add campaign, but thanks for sharing, I hadn't seen it yet. I work with Sharp, and if you're interested in purchasing an lcd television you should definitely check out their deals. Their reputation speaks for itself.
JP Aerospace, a private space program flew the chair and the camera rigs. There were four flights all together.
We're posted a bunch of pictures from the mission here:
www.jpaerospace.com/blog
Obviously they did it for chairity.
Wow... looks like it would have been much cheaper to use photoshop.
When I first looked at the picture, I thought it was a some type of setup. A setup where, you walk into a room, and an image/video is displayed all around you while you sit in this chair. I think something like that would be pretty cool, to feel like you're sitting in a chair floating hundreds of feet off the ground.
The view... it's so beautiful from up he- *pop HOLY !@#$
Ad is a copy of the exact same project by artist Simon Faithfull's Escape Vehicle No. 6 in 2004, commissioned by The Arts Catalyst. We're flattered, but they shouldn't pretend it's a "first".
Watch the original:
http://www.youtube.com/artscat
From what I read, Simon Faithfull is part of the team who did this so no wonder they look similar.
Having the whole thing made out of balsa wood and weighing under 4 lbs is definately a challenge. The original one from Simon was made from a metal chair and done in a populated area... there would definately have been issues if it was launched in the US like that.
next time if they'd like to do an ad for a safe box,
are they going to do the same thing?
what if it fall onto somebody's head?
did anybody think about that? what if it appears in front of a plane?
read:
"FAA regulations required that the weight of the rig had to be less than four pounds"
no safe, because the FAA said 4 pounds (do you sit on a safe when you watch TV?),
no planes because the FAA approved the "flight" and cleared the airspace.
weather baloons go up all the time. the logstics weren't a problem.
In Nevada, armchair sits on you!
Wow!!! very cool video. Thanks
"But Daddy, you had said that we did this for a show."
I thought source doing to be wonderful.
And, it was interested though it did not know how to have sent the earth the image.
However, it worries about the chair and machine parts with the space debris.
Or, did it burn out?
Was the falling object able to be collected safely?
It's anxious.
Toshiba. Worlds Biggest Letdown....
Brilliant. Except its an uncredited corporate rip-off of a 2004 project by artist Simon Faithfull called “Escape Vehicle no.6″, sponsored by http://www.artscatalyst.org/
Confronted on the copy, Grey now claims the original artist was “on the team” and that their original idea was “making an advert of this concept”.
You can compare the videos on YouTube, or on my blog… http://jebuff.vox.com/library/post/chairs-in-space-and-ripping-off-an-idea.html