Marketing

There are many clever marketers in Japan - this much I know.

I don't know if this is unique to here or is practiced in other countries, but this year some company gave our school a free copy machine for the staff room. They also provide ink, paper, and maintenance. What do they get in return? All of the copies include color ads at the bottom of the page that teachers must cut off and discard.
Don't know if that's cost effective (probably not) but seemed to me like a pretty cool idea.

Yup, my handouts are rocking out Spiderman and Mr. Lego.

Take that, Mr. James!

Or rather, take that, McDonalds.

A friend of mine asked in a comment a while back what I think of the whole Mr. James thing. While I'm not so completely turned off that I'm going to boycott McDonalds, I think it was a stupid and insensitive move on their part, and an unwise marketing decision. Perhaps some Japanese find it funny, but I think the more publicity this campaign receives, the more negatively it will reflect on McDonalds. A large, multinational corporation such as McDonalds with such extensive experience should know better than to run a campaign based on a stereotype (especially a negative one).

The Daily Yo-ji just released a spoof of Mr. James promoting Mos Burger, one of Japan's leading burger chains. They also sent a letter with their proposal to Mos Burger. Pretty funny. I really hope someone from Mos decides to pick up this counter-marketing plan and run with it.

H/t to Japan Probe. Here's the link for the video, if you can't view it embedded.