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 teachers are: Mr Leather, an English lyric-spouting rockstar; Mr Dragon, a Bruce Lee impersonator; Mr Salesman, who looks like one of the Happi-coat wearing staff you see at huge electronics stores like Bic Camera; mixing and scratching Mr DJ; horse-riding Mr Shogun, who looks like he should be in an NHK samurai drama; family melodrama character Miss Soap Opera; Mr Street Gang, a bōsōzoku thug with a penchant for unusual kanji combinations; and Mr Blackbeard, a pop-up pirate in a barrel. The Principal seems normal at first, but then transforms into a football referee who cancels the holidays.

The Stars: Both the students and the teachers deserve equal praise for their performances. The students’ deadpan reactions contrast each teacher’s bizarre behaviour wonderfully, highlighting the absurdity of the situation. On the other hand, the teachers bring amusement and individuality to each ad.

Everyone who sees these commercials will have their favourite teacher; mine is DJ-sensei, who does a bit of vinyl scratching before announcing ‘chigaimasu’ (‘you’re wrong’) to a student who’s answered his question.

Why They’re Top: The series demonstrates a refreshing (no pun intended) way of advertising a familiar product. It’s also very Japanese, and uses a mixture of stereotypes and pop-culture references in a humorous way. And, in terms of marketing effectiveness, it does a great job of appealing to Fanta’s target market of youngsters.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 10:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized, Articles in English, Adverts/Commercials, YouTube and other Videos, Top TV Commercials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.