The Ad: It uses a clear (and quite literal) idea to convey Toyota’s ‘Human Touch’ strapline, featuring a number of salarymen performing the roles of car components.
The Stars: The salarymen, memorable in the same way that androids in films tend to be (Westworld, A.I. etc). They’re also a good example of kimo-kawaii.
Why It’s Top: As the best TV ads do, this one uses a unique idea to convey a message anyone can understand. It’s also quite subversive in the it represents a reversal of the Japanese obsession of replacing humans with automated robots.
An interesting clip that gives a good idea of the frenetic pace of both TV programmes and construction work in Japan. Featuring the Shinjuku skyscraper district of Tokyo, keep an eye out and you’ll see one of Japan’s most impressive buildings, Tochō.
While researching previous posts on kids’ beer, I came across several blogs featuring Petcomyu’s Happy Lager, a beer aimed at dogs. Like kids’ beer, dogs’ beer is a non-alcoholic beer that is marketed in the same way as regular alcoholic beer (ie shown in advertising to be consumed in the same way and in the same places). (more…)
This clip is a compilation of segments featuring impressive ‘Pythagorean devices’ from Japanese kids’ TV programme Pitagora Suicchi (Pythagora Switch). Pop-culture vultures will be familiar with this kind of device from films like Back To The Future and The Goonies.
The ones in this clip are made from the kind of items you would find at home or in the classroom, but are incredibly sophisticated nonetheless. They’re also accompanied by one of those insanely catchy jingles that Japanese people seem to love, so chances are you’ll be humming the tune for the next few days.
Regular viewers of Japanese TV will be familiar with the uaido shō (wide shows=variety shows) that dominate TV schedules in Japan. These consist of tarento (TV personalities) and comedians getting together to particapate in group activities, most commonly those staples of Japanese life, eating, drinking, shopping and travelling.
There’s only one thing that the people on these shows like doing more, and that’s (more…)
The last two Top TV Commercials have focused on products unique to Japan that have been advertised in a memorable way. This time round, I’m going to look at memorable Japanese advertising for a product that isn’t unique to Japan, but is familiar to people all over the world.
The Product:Fanta. Everyone knows the brand name, but as well as the usual orenji (orange) flavour Fanta, this series of ads also introduces the less familiar flavours of gurēpufurūtsu (grapefruit), howaito piichi (white peach), sumomo (plum), toropikaru furūtsu (tropical fruit), suiitii (sweety), gurēpu (grape) and sappari piichi (refreshing peach). For a full list of Fanta flavours sold in Japan, see Wikipedia.
The Ads: This series of 7 ads features a different teacher in the first six. The final one has all the teachers together with the school principle.
The Product: You need to be 20 years old to legally buy alcohol in Japan, but that hasn’t stopped the Sangaria company bringing out kodomo no nomimono (lit:children’s drink), a drink they basically market as beer for kids. Admittedly the product doesn’t contain any alcohol, but the fact that it’s blatantly portrayed as imitation beer means it’s the kind of thing you’d never find in a western country. (more…)
I thought there’d be no more toilets on Big On Japan after the 4th installment of the Toilets In Japan series, but I was wrong. Here’s yet another innovative addition to Japan’s toilet technology range:
After the global success of The Fugitive in 1993, Harrison Ford went on to make a series of beer commercials in Japan the following year. At the time still the biggest thing since sliced bread, he was the perfect frontman for Kirin’s ‘Mr Beer’ campaign, which showed him drinking beer with Japanese people in assorted Japanese settings:
While watching Japanese TV I’ve noticed that it’s extremely difficult to distinguish one channel from another. OK, so it’s easy enough to spot public broadcaster NHK’s two channels from their programming (boring!), but the commercial networks all seem the same to me. For one thing, they all offer the same mix of light entertainment programmes (mostly wide shows=variety shows) featuring the same TV stars on every channel. More significantly though, Japanese TV channels rarely feature any previews/trailers of forthcoming programmes, schedules telling you what’s going to be on the channel later that night, or information about which channel you’re watching. (more…)
