Suntory Whisky Carved the World’s Most Incredible Ice Cubes

Advertising craft doesn't get more delicate than this. Check out the crazy ice cubes TBWA\Hakuhodo created for Japan's Suntory Whisky.

The agency used what's called a CNC router (and a process that's kind of inverse 3-D printing) to carve the designs, which ranged from the Statue of Liberty to the Sphinx to Batman and everything in between. (There even appears to be, perhaps presciently, a Cannes Lion in the mix.)

Miwako Fujiwara of TBWA\Hakuhodo said the CNC router was chilled at -7 degrees Celsius to keep the ice from melting. The agency used an app called Autodesk 123D to capture the 3-D images and prep them for printing. "A touch of chilled whiskey polishes the surface of the ice and gives a beautiful shine to the sculpture," Fujiwara added.

The campaign was launched in 2014 and won gold for design in Adweek's Project Isaac Awards last year. It also just won a Branded Content & Entertainment Lotus trophy at the Asia Pacific Advertising Festival in Thailand.

Lots more images, along with credits, below.

CREDITS

Client: Suntory

Campaign: "3D on the Rocks"

Agency: TBWA Hakuhodo+Hakuhodo

Executive Creative Director, Creative Director, Planner: Kazoo Sato

Copywriters, Planners: Takahiro Hosoda, Nobuhiro Arai

Art Directors, Designers: Yo Kimura, Yuki Tokuno

Creative Technologist: Masashi Matsukura

Producer: Kaoru Otani

Assistant Producer: Fusae Yoshikawa

Public Relations: Kayoko Asano, Miwako Fujiwara

Production: Tokyo, mount inc., amana

Movie:

Director: Eiji Tanigawa, Tokyo

Camera: Senzo Ueno, Tokyo

Lighting: Masachio Nishida

Art: Midoriko Nemoto, Taiyo Kikaku

Ice: Motoharu Kato, Yamane Ice

Sizzle: Noriko Saotome, Grand

Video Engenner: Satoshi Igarashi

Producer: Toshiyuki Takei, Tokyo

Assistant Producer: Masayoshi Takayanagi, Tokyo

Production Manager: Makoto Takahashi, Tokyo

Production Manager Assistant: Rintaro Kozasa, Taiyo Kikaku　

Offline Editor: Ryuichi Hasegawa (puzzle)

Online Editor: Akira Nishibu, Image Studio 109

Multi Audio: Yuta Sato, Image Studio 109

Sound Effects: Norio Kobayashi, ONPa

Music:

Executive Producer: Audioforce

Producer: Danic

Composer: Steve Sidwell

Web:

Planners: Im Jeong-ho, Takeshiro Umetsu, mount inc.

Planner, Art Director, Technical Director, Director: Hidekazu Hayashi, mount inc.

Directors: Hiroka Hasegawa, Hideki Yoshidatsu, mount inc.

HTML Coding: Hideki Yoshidatsu, mount inc.

3-D Computer Graphics: Takeo Saito, Mika Nariya, Fulvis K.K.

Production Manager: Ko Yoshida, mount inc.

Graphic:

Photographer: Keisuke Minoda, acube

Retoucher: Masahiko Furuta, Rizing

Photo Producer: Shinya Omi, Amana