Asahi Shimbun in readership drive

<p>Leading Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun has run a month-long </p><p>campaign to promote its new look in the market. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The commercial, named "safecracking", features a young man digging a </p><p>tunnel to reach the safe of a bank which, unbeknown to him, had already </p><p>closed down. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>When the young man finally manages to reach the safe, a worker comes up </p><p>to tell him that the safe no longer existed and said: "This place has </p><p>gone out of business, I don't think you've read the paper, have </p><p>you?" </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The commercial targets young people, who increasingly spend less time </p><p>reading newspapers, and it incorporates the message that newspapers are </p><p>indeed important, even helpful," said Dentsu CD Masaharu Nakano. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>"The commercial conveyed the paper's determination to transform itself </p><p>into a newspaper that is both more interesting and necessary," said Mr </p><p>Nakano. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The promotional campaign, entitled "Asahi Shin2bun", with the word </p><p>"Shin" meaning new in Japanese, stressed the paper's latest </p><p>improvement. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Circulating to 8.3 million people in Japan, Asahi Shimbun aims to push </p><p>subscriptions and communicate its role as an integral part of people's </p><p>daily lives amid the new multimedia competition. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Since merely communicating on content was not enough, the new campaign </p><p>also focused on the important role of the paper's attachment to people's </p><p>lives. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The commercial was ranked the third most popular campaign in April, </p><p>according the monthly index conducted by CM magazine. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>