Rock you

Word.

POM Samurai

I just saw one of POM's latest commercials on TV and was pleasantly surprised to hear some Japanese!

All this Candy

As you may well know, I like me a good mobile game. That said, I never got into Candy Crush Saga. Maybe I'm too much of a game snob? Perhaps that's it. Candy Crush is for casual gamers. "Cassies." Or maybe I just have very specific tastes when it comes to match-3's. If there are no swords or goblins, I'm probably out.

So it should come as no surprise that I haven't played the latest chapter, Candy Crush Soda. Well, that's not entirely true. I played it on Mint's phone for about two minutes on some nefarious mode with ever-expanding, evil chocolate. Needless to say the chocolate was no match for my wiles.

Anyway, I was watching some recent Japanese commercials on YouTube and discovered that Candy Crush seems to be a hit over in J-Land, too. At least enough so to warrant ads on TV, which I've never seen in the US.

Here are two from the series. I'm not sure if they've all been aired around the same time or have been staggered.




In the first one, the sitting dude asks the fairy dude what the difference is between Candy Crush and Candy Soda. He is met with silence.



In the second one, the sitting dude is like "You're the Candy Soda fairy, right?" The fairy dude confirms that to be the case. Dude 1 then follows up, "So then how come you can't tell me how to clear stage 40?" The fairy dude then apologizes.

Tarako Tuesday

Is that a thing? Why not?

Drink your milk

In the US, we've had some memorable marketing campaigns for certain generic foods or beverages."Got milk"" and "Behold, the power of cheese" come to mind. A comparable line of commercials in Japan uses the jingle 「牛乳に相談だ」, which is a little difficult to translate directly, but is probably something like "Milk can help."

They tend to advertise that milk can work to enhance attributes like your strength, beauty, or powers of concentration:

This one I saw recently uses its tagline a little more literally. The jingle can also be translated as "Consult with milk." So that is what this girl is doing:

She says that she's been dieting but isn't healthy. And she is told that the milk advises she...drink milk. Word.

What to expect from Softbank

Last year Softbank, one of Japan's Big Three mobile carriers, acquired the US's Sprint Nextel. Since then, Softbank owner Masayoshi Son (the richest man in Japan) has been trying to shake things up. Those weird new Sprint commercials? Those are thanks to Softbank. Apparently Son got angry at Sprint's ineffective marketing agencies, "suggested" they be fired, and pushed for commercials imitating what has worked in Japan for Softbank. Unfortunately I'm not sure they're having much of a splash here; I think they may be a little too random and disjointed for Americans.

Most recently, Son has been in talks with both T-Mobile and the feds (both the FCC and the DoJ), trying to make a Sprint - T-Mobile deal happen. Consolidating the two would make them a match for Verizon and AT&T, the two behemoths of the US wireless market. Son has made the case that despite T-Mobile's relative success over the past couple of years, the market is effectively a duopoly right now, and the 3rd and 4th largest carriers are too comparatively small to effectively compete. Democratic officials in the government (especially FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler) have been signalling that they disagree, and that 4 is their preferred number of major competitors. Now, it seems, Sprint has lined up financing for the deal and is considering whether to move full speed ahead and damn the torpedos (!) or wait for more favorable circumstances, such as a new administration. While Republicans are generally more friendly to M&A, there's no guarantee that they will retake the White House in two years, and I'm not sure if Son will want to wait that long, potentially for little gain.

Meanwhile, it looks like Softbank has been making small moves to raise its own stock in the US, detatched from Sprint. For what purpose, I'm not sure. Lately I have seen these ads in the metro:

It looks like it's trying to make a pitch for itself and get its name out there, but..."Expect the unexpected," indeed. As someone who has lived in Japan, I am familiar with Softbank, but even I don't know what to expect from them here in the US. Though I must admit that I checked out the website and looked for a "careers" section. There was not one.

It's society's fault...

Understanding

As noted in the comments on the YouTube page for this video, I think it's pretty easy to get this commercial without understanding any Japanese.

Strong Grapefruit!

Nothin' but graphite

The life of an ink cartridge

Ume no Hana

I haven't forgotten about that article, but need to find time...

For now I wanted to share these commercials for a restaurant called Ume no Hana (Plum Blossom). I don't think I've ever been to one, and these ads wouldn't exactly entice me to seek one out, but they are funny.



This first one features three office ladies singing about they left their wallets behind and then took their boss to the restaurant. I guess they're mooching a meal?




Next we have a salaryman singing about how he can't refuse going out with the guys. Well, he admits, he could refuse if he wanted to, but that's not the case, so...awesome?



Last are a bunch of guys singing about how (if they eat here) they don't have any dishes to wash when they're done. Inspiring.

Strange offerings, but I like the off-beat.

Edit: I had to make a couple revisions after realizing I was misunderstanding the nuance of these commercials.

Weird foot commercial

They had earbuds in 1987?

Milk Seafood...? Ew..

Saturn from Saturn

Looks like someone was a fan of the old SNL "Coneheads" skits.

So Catchy

Don't know why the same two commercials repeat, but...good luck getting this little jingle out of your head.

Mos

You know, been really hankering for Mos Burger recently. Ah, that meat sauce...




There's one right near Hankyu Itami station that I used to stop by now and then. I could easily do two of these bad boys in a sitting.

Toyota Doraemon

Here's a pretty sweet series of Toyota commercials. Doraemon is pretty much the most popular cartoon ever in Japan (a cartoon cat that even teenage high school dudes like) and seems to be a cultural element that everyone can share and enjoy. In these commercials, the gang talk about their dreams for adulthood and Nobita-kun doesn't seem to have any ambitions except for being able to drive. Fast forward to 20 years later (and decartoonification) and the characters have become adults. Give it a watch to see what's going on with everyone.

Also, the portrayal of Doraemon is...well, it's great. Just watch.

Boil Japan?

I do not think it means what they think it means...