Green Label is a beer brand that pushes the image of feel-good green. The goal: To have everyone feel that “green” is a great thing.

“Over 90% of Japanese names include elements of green.” Our discovery is that “green,” which symbolizes nature, actually can be found in a large number of Japanese names. The Kanji characters used for Japanese names are pictograms, stylized drawings of the objects they represent. Our research shows that many more “green” aspects that represent elements of nature exist in Japanese names than what people might have been aware of.

A website that lets users discover the green elements in their names, and generates animations of greenery. Over 3,000 Kanji characters used in Japanese names are transformed into hand-drawn GIF animations. Users could also share the GIF animations of their names on social media.
The website also features an e-commerce section for users to purchase merchandise adorn with each of their own Green Name, and a time-limited store was opened for users to shop for their Green Name merchandise and beer cans.

Within three weeks, the website generated GIF animations for 1.2 million green names, and garnered coverage from 138 media entities. Reactions from users included people who were pleasantly surprised when finding unexpected green elements in their names, and people who became big fans of Green Label. More than anything, everyone realized that Japan is a country full of green.