I’m a fan of creativity, even in advertisements. I won’t necessarily buy a product because of a well thought out commercial, but I appreciate their efforts. One thing I can’t stand, though, is contradiction in advertising, whether intentional or mistaken.
I absolutely couldn’t stand* the Sprite campaign, “Image is nothing, thirst is everything.” It would be more convincing if you didn’t have Kobe Bryant plastered all over the place for the full length of the presentation. Kobe Bryant is nothing but image. He’s the living, physical embodiment of image in human form. The message was, “Don’t choose your drink based on the connotations of its image, but instead choose our drink because we’re paying Kobe Bryant to advertise it and his fees aren’t cheap, for crying out loud.”
The second advertisement that comes to mind was a billboard I saw throughout local train stations in Japan for a company called JCB. (I think they’re some sort of credit or loan firm, but it’s irrelevant for the story) I suppose English carries with it an image of intellectual authority in Japan, but when you print up signs reading, “JCB Quolity,” I don’t think too many people will be truly assured that the quality they’ll get from JCB will be of very high standards. If you can’t afford a native speaker to edit your expensive advertisement, at least run it through a spell-check!
Japanese beer commercials actually interest me more than annoy me. If you’ve never seen one, they’re very different from the beer commercials in the States (hot, scantily clad women, large party, very social, this Bud’s for you type thing). Instead, you’ll see this loner of a man’s man doing something incredible outdoors, like rock climbing a vertical cliff face, and when he reaches the top, he cracks open a beer, tilts his head up toward the blazing summer sun, takes a huge chug and lets out a long, breezy, “Aaaaahhhhh.” It amuses me, because, in reality, most often people who are going to have a beer in Japan do it in an izakaya with a bunch of people, and at the end of the night they’re passed out on the floor of the last train, very, very far away from any sunny, vertical cliff faces.
* Here, I use the past tense because I’ve been absent from the U.S. for a considerable amount of time and have no idea what sort of campaign Sprite is employing currently.
6 Comments
February 19, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Not to mention that getting intoxicated while rock climbing is a bad, bad idea. Beer commercials are really similar to vitamin / energy drink commercials in that way - do something cool and outdoors, then drink the product. The only real difference is the level of exertion and therefore the sweat content. Ha ha. Ok, so maybe there’s more to it than that, but I liked the comparison.
(By the way, I hated that one beer commercial for Asahi Green, or whatever it was. With all the foreign dudes. Not their fault - it was just a dumb commercial. But I digress.)
February 19, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Matt Hanson
February 20, 2008 at 11:58 am
Excellent remarks on the beer commericals. The actors say “Ahhhhhhhhh” after gulping the beer as it burns their throat, especially if it is a happoshu-type.
I like the shochu commercials as well, with tired men coming home late in the evening and being served by their wife in a kimono, and then they drink together. That really happens…right? Or working all day with the community in the fishing villiage, and having a nice cold one with your freshly harversted fish.
February 20, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Deas: Right, nearly the same, except the vita drinks give you energy and the beer chills you out, apparently. So in sequential order, the manly man should be drinking a vitamin drink, which energize them into completeing incredible feats, and when the feat is complete they crack open a beer.
Bryan: I know my wife wears a kimono around the house daily. Also, she makes sure to turn the tea cup three times clockwise in her hand before setting in front of me, me sitting 17 lines back on the tatami mat.
February 20, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Sounds like you got the house in order, yeah? Carry on.
February 22, 2008 at 9:30 am
i’m with you on the anti-sprite adverts.
ugh. kobe bryant.
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