Sunday May 27, 2012

What do you think of the quality of TV commercials and billboard ads in Japan? Seen anything you like?

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  • 0

    jikannomuda

    intel's CMs with the reporter heading out to the countryside are fresh and snazzy.

    Softbank's White Family has grown old and boring.

  • 0

    smartacus

    I like observing the cultural differences of ads in Japan. For example, the taste test is almost unknown in ad campaigns, and in TV commercials, you almost never see the price of a product mentioned.

    Foreign celebrities aren't as common as they used to be.

    Catchwords in English are still amusing. Does anyone remember Coca-Cola's "I feel Coke" campaign? But their ads are still the best, with Namie Amuro. My all-time favorite ad in Japan was another Coca-Colaone in the mid-1990s that featured Elton John playing a piano at a party and inserted into the party were clever digital images of stars like Humphrey Bogar, James Cagney and Louis Armstrong.

  • 0

    kokorocloud

    I haven't watched the tube for a few months now, but from what I remember, CMs and ads are one of the things to love about this country, haha. Some of them are just so, utterly bizarre, but really amusing at the same time.

  • 0

    METinTokyo

    My favorite ad here was on local TV many years ago and only for a short time. It featured Peter Falk, and showed him waking up very disheveled (still in trench coat) in a sleazy Tokyo hotel (Yamanote line could be seen outside the window) rubbing his eyes then reaching for and downing the remains of a glass of whiskey that had been on the night stand...voice-over "Ah Suntory".

  • 0

    herefornow

    Boring, childish and formulatic, like so much else of Japan. I mean does every beer commercial have to have a celebrity and the gulp/AHHHH shot? And does nearly every car commercial have to use a piece of western music which has nothing at all to do with the vehicle or the commercial?

  • 0

    shogun36

    there's a CM I seen a few times recently from DMM.com. I never caught the whole thing, but it's basically a bunch of beautiful women bending over. GOOD STUFF!!!

  • 0

    porter

    I like the billboards of celebrities promoting cigerettes. It reminds me that they will do ANYTHING for money.

  • 0

    pamelot

    Always have and still do enjoy the Iichiko ads... Beautiful nature shots, with a small bottle within the pic... Clever and understated...

  • 0

    wanderlust

    The CMs are generally good, interspersed with boring dramas, unreal female detective/ lawyer shows, eating programmes, endless re-runs of the 15th place finish of any Japanese competitor in any event, SMAP members doing something, and the NHK version of world news...

  • 0

    Foxie

    The JR Tokai Xmas Express commercials were just the best. Too bad they stopped them. Please bring them back JR.

  • 0

    Disillusioned

    There are half a dozen or more commercials running on TV at present that I have seen a few times, but I still have no idea what they are actually advertising.

  • 0

    Antonios_M

    They are funny and entertaining. I rarely watch CM back in my homecountry, but in Japan sometimes i even like them.

    My favorite one is the Kirin beer commercial with the old guy hanging out, eating yakitori and (of course) drinking Kirin beer while the "Kanpai" song is playing in the background. Somehow, this commercial always made me want to drink a beer....

  • 0

    papasmurfinjapan

    Generally I find them a notch or two above the commercials in my own country.

    The summer Kincho commercials are always a laugh. KDDI also used to do good commercials. My favorite was　the gay bellboy with his fly open one. Ahh the good old days...

  • 0

    bicultural

    I personally find the new berlitz ads on the trains hilarious. You have to be able to read Japanese tho.

  • 0

    nigelboy

    Always liked the Meiji Yasuda Seimei commercial. Heartwarming.

    Panasonic had a commercial few years ago about a dying soon to be grandmother trying to learn how to use a laptop. Tear jerker.

    And of course, Tommy Lee Jones in his role as an alien on Boss.

  • 0

    Zenny11

    There are many good Cm"s in Japan.

    Personally like the Forrester ones with Thunderbird style exits from the property, etc.

    Tommy Lee Jones ones are fun, also like the Softbank ads lots of tongue in cheek in those as well as wordplays, etc.

  • 0

    LostinNagoya

    Technically they are superb. I love the touch of humor some of them have (I particularly remember one that was a copy of the rumba dance scene from The Maskara). Also Japanese coms have a touch of romance, of slow time, that I liked too. But the ones with young people on the beach, jumping and making kissing beaks are terrible.

  • 0

    Zenny11

    Liked the super cup add with the 3 teens and the 2 super cups kissing and 2 teens blushing.

  • 0

    Disillusioned

    There ARE many commercials on TV that have no hint of what they are actually advertising until the product is shown at the end.

  • 0

    whiskeysour

    I don't understand why they have a fat japanese guy that looks like a woman,advertising for cosmetic products. Why couldn't they find a fat japnese woman to do that ?

    I'm not against gay nippon dudes but, why are they endorsing women's products?

    Another commerical the gay man that wears a green nightgown and sells pantyhose/leg cream/ or whatever the commerical is about? Women don't have a package if you know what I mean.

    Do women buy a product endorsed by a gay dude ?

    The softbank commericals are really BORING. Move on already !!!! There's nothing to spin anymore, nada !!!! move on !!!!

  • 0

    artster

    Yes -- any ad featuring Takuya Kimura. :)

  • 0

    Judderman

    i like the ad for Rakuichi where the dad is just about to throw a dart at a spinning wheel to decide something ..everybody cheering until his dart lands on a small thin black strip with a skull on it and suddenly everyones expression changes.havent a clue what rakuichi is or what the ad is about..its just funny

  • 0

    debittoo

    Well last week in the publicity lesson at my school we were talking about that.

    lately japanese commercial are not so good as it was.

    I prefer old japanese commercials, the new one are boring, or copying others CM...there is no originally in japan and i would like they sometimes try to make a serious CM, they only have funny CM with funny characters, stories...etc.

    I love JR old CM, Shiseido 60's CM...etc.

    But i love the new Shiseido One CM the "shuu, shuu" CM

    Whiskeysour maybe you're right, but maybe you're not too.

    The fat guy who like a woman...maybe you don't know but there are many people around the world like him. Anyway, she's a famous comedian in Japan actually, and it's a good image for the commercial i think. Maybe you prefer have a girl showing her bones on TV...

    In Japan, they don't think if he/she is gay or not, they think is funny see a guy acting like a girl..etc, maybe like in your country 10 years ago (well actually i don't where do you live...). Japan has a little quite old thinking about gay and their world. They think there's only gay outside (in foreigns countries, not in Japan), they even haven't any laws to help gay people..etc.

    Softbank commercials...the actual ones are boring yeah, i prefer SMAP softbank commercial, are funnier.

  • 0

    nandakandamanda

    The occasional good one. The first drugstor ad "Ki ni naru... Zag Zag" with the girl blushing was very clever.

    I love the one where the guy is sitting slurping his beef bowl when an alien appears. He looks up and gasps in astonishment, but then the camera zooms past the alien to what he was looking at: the poster behind the alien showing the stunningly low prices for some of the dishes.

  • 0

    ShizukaMorley

    I like the UNIQLO ads.

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