Top TV Commercials - Beer For Kids
Following my previous Reblogging Japan post about kids’ beer, here’s a TV ad for the product from YouTube.
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.
The Ad: The TV commercial shows different groups of people enjoying the product in various locations commonly depicted in regular beer advertising: a family in a restaurant giving a toast; kids at a party; a group of kids with a dad (and several cases of the product) at a barbecue.
Finally, a different child is seen enjoying a glass of the stuff on his own - just to let kids know that boozing doesn’t have to be a social thing. And because this is a Japanese TV ad, there’s naturally a song to which everyone featured in the ad is singing along to (basically “cheers to the kids’ drink”)
The Stars: Mostly minors. Whether they were paid in cash or with kegs of fake beer is unknown.
Why It’s Top: Brewers of alcopops in Britain are often accused of targeting underage drinkers with bright colours and cool product designs, although compliance with ASA regulations - and indeed public opinion - means advertising never depicts minors drinking these products.
What we have with kodomo no nomimono though, is a product that doesn’t contain alcohol, but is shown to be consumed by minors imitating adults consuming alcohol. Whether this is more or less ‘morally reprehensible’ than alcopops advertising is debatable, but it certainly evokes that classic phrase ‘only in Japan’.
It also makes me wonder what Japanese FMCG marketing minds will think of next. Perhaps encouraging kids to pretend Pocky snacks are cigarettes? Only time will tell…
Check out this other top TV commercial: Tarako
February 15th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Imagine the outcry if a company in the United States came out with fake or candy cigarette for children.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
“Imagine the outcry if a company in the United States came out with fake or candy cigarette for children.”
They already have a long time ago, one was a candy stick that melted as you sucked on it, but looked like a cigarette and the other was like a cigarette as in it had a filter and was wrapped in paper. You sucked a powdered candy through the filter. I don’t think thet make either one anymore, but my sister and I use to buy them all the time when we went to my grandparent’s house.