Super Bowl and Super Overtime Guy

Hello, everyone. On February 3rd in the U.S., the hugely popular sporting event, the Super Bowl, took place. It's a national event where people consume massive amounts of beer and popcorn, and if you have a big-screen TV, your friends suddenly multiply just for this day. This year, the power outage at the dome became a hot topic, but the TV commercials aired during the game also drew everyone's attention.

Every year, companies pour their all into these commercials. This year, about half of them were integrated with social media. Beyond the basic approach of providing a Twitter hashtag to get people talking about the commercial or brand, they did things like letting everyone choose the commercial's ending beforehand, soliciting names for a horse appearing in the commercial, or running events where companies responded in real-time to people's Instagram photo posts...

Engaging everyone through ads and social media? That's part of my job in "Digital & New Frontier Creative." This work isn't about creating one thing and delivering it—it's about building long-term, detailed interactions with users. So, planning and execution inevitably take time and effort.

My current office is part of 360i, an agency strong in social media, but they're busy too. People often find it surprising, but everyone works late nights and comes in on holidays. Even so, the one always seen as the "super overtime guy" staying late... is me. Ugh, embarrassing!

Well, it's just that I'm often at the office late because of conference calls with Japan. But when I try to leave, people joke, "Oh no, if Yasu's leaving, it must be that late already!"

The office at night, after everyone's gone—a sight the super overtime guy sees often. Lonely. Not a time to panic yet.

 

Here, even when busy, people don't do pointless overtime. Even if work remains, they leave to meet friends. They leave to go exercise. They leave even if a senior stays behind. Time to build yourself is important. And when it's time to work, they work. Unlike Japan, there seems to be no tragic sense to overtime. Happiness lies beyond overtime. Even if the same work team goes out drinking, it doesn't feel resentful. It's for the results you produce.

In Japan, maybe because there's no happiness at the end of it, or because of the unfairness of groupthink, or because work and evaluation aren't directly linked—there are various reasons—but overtime is long and painful, right? It's painful for me too. Seeing everyone's late-night tweets really hits home. We need to change this too. I know I'm talking big for a super overtime guy, but I wonder if this difference in mindset about overtime also plays a small part in why American creatives are more flexible.

Well, this got long, but to put it simply... it's like, "Don't get mad if I go out drinking without you and post fun photos"... or maybe not... Fellow super overtime guys, let's take it easy, stick together, and keep pushing through.

Eating a late dinner in Koreatown, staring up at the sky. The Empire State Building really hits you, doesn't it?