NTT Docomo's Baku More exhibition hides an SNS leak warning in a gorgeous photo show

Personal information being identified from casually posted photos was a growing problem among Japanese students, and Docomo wanted to act before the active spring-break posting season. But ordinary warnings from a telecom company read as a lecture teenagers skip, and the brand believed young people only change when a risk feels like jibun-goto, their own business.

Stage a gorgeous influencer photo show, then reveal upstairs how every 'beautiful' shot leaks location, fingerprints and keys — making SNS risk feel personal.

On February 22–23, 2025, Docomo held Baku More, a pun on 'becoming gorgeous' and 'leaking', at Light Box Studio Aoyama in Tokyo. The ground floor looked like an ordinary influencer show: 70 photos taken on phone cameras by 10 influencers, including Kato Yuri (かとゆり), who counts more than 1.5 million followers across social networks. Nothing in the promotion hinted at a lesson — TikTok posts were styled like a high-schooler's own hype and Docomo's corporate identity was kept out of sight. Only upstairs did visitors enter a secret zone that explained, photo by photo, how reflections and address signs gave away locations, fingers betrayed fingerprints, and photographed keys could be copied, ending with a quiz.

About 1,000 people visited across the two days, twice the forecast, and television coverage drew visitors well beyond the targeted teens and twenties. The work won an ACC Gold in Branded Communication at the 65th ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS, a Gold plus Audience Award at the 5th JAA Challenge Award, and Silver at the 78th Ad Dentsu Award; in June 2026 it took the Grand Prix, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award, of the 12th JACE Event Award from 174 entries.

NTT Docomo set out in early 2025 to reduce SNS posting troubles among young people, especially students, as casual photos were increasingly being used to identify personal information. Its own brand team judged that a straight warning from a telecom company would read as a lecture and be ignored, so the brief became how to make the risk feel like jibun-goto, something that happens to you.

The answer was a two-day exhibition, Baku More, at Light Box Studio Aoyama in Tokyo on February 22–23, 2025. The ground floor looked like an aspirational influencer show, displaying 70 photos taken on phone cameras by 10 influencers — among them Kato Yuri (かとゆり), with more than 1.5 million social followers. Promotions on TikTok were styled to look like a high-schooler's own excited posts, and Docomo deliberately kept its corporate identity out of the public story so young people would come for fun.

The twist sat upstairs in a secret zone whose existence was never announced: every innocent-looking photo quietly gave away information. Reflections and address signs in windows revealed locations, close-ups of hands let prints be read, and a photographed key could be reproduced. Visitors moved through explanations of each leak and finished with a quiz. Attendance reached about 1,000, twice the forecast, and television coverage brought people in their 30s and 40s as well as the teens the event was built for.

The idea kept collecting recognition after the event: an ACC Gold in Branded Communication at the 65th ACC TOKYO CREATIVITY AWARDS, Gold plus the Audience Award at the 5th JAA Challenge Award, Silver at the 78th Ad Dentsu Award, and in June 2026 the Grand Prix, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award, of the 12th JACE Event Award among 174 entries.

The double face used the behavior itself as the delivery mechanism: visitors practiced posting 'gorgeous' photos before being shown what those photos gave away.

Docomo removed its own corporate voice from promotion, so attendance doubled its forecast instead of preaching to a room of converts.

A physical reveal made an abstract risk concrete — location, fingerprints and keys are things a visitor could imagine being extracted from their own feed.

The exhibit did not end at the venue: the concept was rebuilt as a browser game and free classroom materials, carrying the lesson into schools.

Let people discover the danger inside content they already love: hiding the lecture until visitors reached the reveal made SNS leaks feel personal in a way no corporate warning could.

After the exhibition closed, Docomo rebuilt the concept as Influencer Training Game Baku More, a free browser game released March 24, 2026, with classroom slides and worksheets supervised by Kobe University professor emeritus Morii Masakatsu, and planned to carry the content into its Sustena School education program for children. The awards run continued too: in June 2026 the exhibition won the Grand Prix, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Award, of the 12th JACE Event Award among 174 entries, joining its ACC Gold, JAA Challenge Award Gold and Ad Dentsu Award Silver.