Volunteer members of the "Waseda University Advertising Society," one of the three major student clubs at Waseda University, produced advertisements with the Yomiuri Shimbun as their client.

Two types of graphic advertisements were displayed at Waseda Station and Takadanobaba Station starting March 23, 2026. Set against the backdrop of job-hunting students' anxieties and young people's distrust of media, this station advertising project aimed to reexamine the "value of newspapers" from a student's perspective and create an opportunity for young people to pick up a newspaper. The advertisements were displayed for a limited time until March 31.

Ads Created by Students Arise in the Public Space of Stations | Waseda University Advertising Society × Yomiuri Shimbun

This project was an advertising production initiative led primarily by volunteer members of the Waseda University Advertising Society in collaboration with the Yomiuri Shimbun. The target audience was the youth demographic, primarily university students. In an era where SNS and digital media have become the mainstream for acquiring information, the value held by the media format of "newspapers" is changing. In this project, alongside attempting to redefine it from the perspective of the same generation, the advertising expressions were designed with the goal of creating an opportunity for young people to actually pick up a newspaper.

Two types of graphic advertisements were completed. Each questions the reliability, archival nature, and responsibility of delivering information to society of newspapers from different angles. Waseda Station and Takadanobaba Station, which are on the commuting routes of Waseda students, were selected as the display locations.

A "One-Month Newspaper Experience" Prior to Advertising Production

As a preliminary step before starting the advertising production, a process was established where all members actually picked up and read a newspaper for a certain period. Including members who had never read a newspaper on a daily basis before, they spent about a month reading the newspaper every day, confronting social events, the layout of the pages, and the methods of conveying information.

After sharing the realizations, senses of discomfort, and changes in impressions towards newspapers gained through that period among the members, they began the advertising production for the first time. A major characteristic of this project is that they designed the words and visuals after undergoing experience and effectiveness measurement, rather than thinking about the expressions first.

Ken Miyajima (3rd year, School of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University), who served as the project leader and oversaw everything from planning to production progress, said regarding this advertising production: "All of us, including members who had never read a newspaper, confronted the same media for the same period. Precisely because we had that experience, I think we were able to perceive it flatly, including not only the strengths of newspapers but also the parts where we feel a distance. That actual feeling has become the criteria for judging the copies and expressions."

Hypothesis Setting and Verification Process After the Newspaper Experience

Based on the realizations gained through the newspaper experience, this project formulated hypotheses about the consciousness and sense of distance towards newspapers among young people and university students, and also tackled their verification.

In setting the hypothesis, they focused on the insights of students who are about to start job hunting. Many job-hunting students hold vague anxieties such as "Will I be competent as a working adult?" or "Can I converse from the same perspective as an adult?" On the other hand, much of the information they encounter daily is fragmentary from SNS and news apps, and there are by no means many opportunities to understand the movements and background of society as a whole.

Regarding these student insights, the participating members analyzed that many students hold the anxiety of "Can I converse from the same perspective as a working adult?" at the stage when they begin to be conscious of job hunting, and inferred that the true nature of that anxiety lies in "not knowing" about society.

The venue chosen to verify this hypothesis was the talk event at the Waseda Festival hosted by the Waseda University Advertising Society. About 90% of the visitors to this event are young people and university students, and it was judged to be an appropriate venue to measure the effectiveness against the target demographic.

At the event venue, a questionnaire was conducted to collect responses regarding images of newspapers and information acquisition behaviors. After analyzing the results, they confirmed that the initially formulated hypothesis was valid to a certain extent, and based on that, the final direction of the creative was determined.

Copy Design Targeting Job-Hunting Students

The graphic advertisement featuring the copy "A guy who doesn't even know what happened today can't possibly create the future." reflects the verification results of the hypothesis.

The newspaper articles collaged in the advertisement intentionally included many articles that are unfamiliar to students and young people, designed to thrust the question "How much do I know about society?" At the time of selecting the articles, they repeatedly made the judgment to intentionally avoid topics that everyone knows or news that has already been exhausted and spread on SNS.

Reading a newspaper is not simply the act of knowing the news. It is also an act of creating a foundation to systematically grasp the elements that make up society, such as politics, economics, and international affairs, and to be able to talk about them in one's own words. In this graphic, by combining the visual collaging newspaper articles selected from this perspective with the copy, it visually expressed that "today's society" and "one's own future" are continuous.

Another Perspective | "Putting it on paper requires resolve."

The graphic advertisement with the copy "Putting it on paper requires resolve." starts by confronting the very image spreading among young people in recent years, such as "Major media cannot be trusted" or "Aren't television and newspapers engaging in biased reporting?"

Regarding SNS and video media, while immediacy and stimulating expressions are prioritized, it is also pointed out as an issue that the basis of reporting and the verification process are difficult to see. This advertisement is an attempt to re-question "what kind of media is a newspaper in bringing information to the world" amidst such a situation.

What this advertisement aimed for is not to argue against the distrust towards major media. It lies in visualizing the basis of trust by presenting the very structure of the processes newspapers go through to deliver information.

A newspaper is a collection of articles where specialized reporters cover diverse fields such as politics, economics, international affairs, society, and culture, piling up fact-checking and corroboration. Not speculations or impressions, but the very process of piling up corroborated information and putting it onto "paper," which cannot be undone once printed, supports the reliability and strength of the media known as newspapers.

Regarding this point, Miyajima reflects, "I felt that the very structure of articles being created not by speculation but by piling up evidence is a value unique to newspapers. I thought that showing that process as an advertisement would lead to trust."

In this graphic, photos taken at actual newspaper printing sites are used for the visuals. By visualizing the flow of information being printed on paper through processes such as reporting, proofreading, and editing, the aim is to intuitively convey the heavy responsibility behind newspaper production.

Information once printed on paper cannot be easily rewritten. Precisely because of that irreversibility, confirmation and verification before publication are thorough. Believing that the resolve of the act of "putting it on paper" is manifested in exactly this point, they expressed it from both aspects of words and visuals.

Why Station Advertising?

The reason the medium of station advertising was chosen in this project is that advertisements exist on the extension of daily life. Station advertisements that unintentionally catch the eye during everyday actions like commuting or traveling play a role in presenting a contact point with society once again to young people who tend to feel a distance from news and society.

Regarding the choice of station advertising, Miyajima says, "A station is not a place where someone goes to get information, but a place that naturally enters one's line of sight in daily life. For students who feel a distance from society and news, we thought station advertising was the most realistic contact point."

What was seen through the production

Since expressions are made in a highly public medium like station advertising, it cannot be established solely by extremity or temporary topicality. What to convey, to whom, and under what responsibility. We believe that the very act of continuing to confront those questions was a major achievement of this project.

On the other hand, there were many scenes where the sense of discomfort or frank questions that only students can hold brought a new perspective to the advertising expressions. The production experience connected to the real society became a great learning experience for the participating members.

Project Overview

・Project Name: Waseda University Advertising Society × Yomiuri Shimbun Station Advertising Project

・Client: The Yomiuri Shimbun

・Production: Waseda University Advertising Society

(Ken Miyajima, Keisei Murata, Nagisa Ohta, Ayaka Ito, Wakana Hayashida)

・Display Locations: ①JR Takadanobaba Station ②Tokyo Metro Takadanobaba Station ③Tokyo Metro Waseda Station / Takadanobaba Station (Inside the stations)

・Display Period: ①JR Takadanobaba Station = March 23 - March 31 ②Tokyo Metro Takadanobaba Station = March 25 - March 31 ③Tokyo Metro Waseda Station = March 23 - March 29

・Display Size: B0 (2 types)

Looking Ahead

The Waseda University Advertising Society plans to continue challenging the dissemination of value unique to students through advertising productions and projects connected to the real society in the future.

We hope that this initiative will serve as an opportunity to reexamine the media of newspapers and become an example that shows the potential of student-led creatives.

*The Waseda Festival talk event, which served as the venue for verifying the hypothesis of this project, is also introduced in the articles below.

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000003.000129460.html

https://realsound.jp/tech/2025/12/post-2241376.html

https://realsound.jp/tech/2025/12/post-2241398

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  • Source: PR TIMES
  • Category: キャンペーン