Spotting western stars in Japanese TV ads
(your chance to win a box of sake!)

How much would you pay to see Brad Pitt belly surf down a flight of stairs? or Arnold Schwarzenegger wearing a fake wig and moustache to push a cable TV service? Well in Japan the going rate is in the range of 1- 3 million US$. This is the amount typically paid by local advertisers.

Three Hollywood regulars in Japanese TV commercials

Foreign stars have long fascinated Japanese consumers and Hollywood celebs have repaid the compliment with some of the cheesiest performances imaginable. Indeed attempts to hide these offending commercials from western eyes have led to requests for their removal from websites, backed up by the implicit threats of law suits.

Within Asia, this Western aspirational advertising is a distinctly Japanese phenomenon that doesn't penetrate to the same extent into neighboring markets such as Korea, Taiwan or China. Flick on the TV in Tokyo tonight and you'll probably see Penelope Cruz washing her hair with Lux Shampoo, Ewan McGregor teaching English (with a Scottish accent?) and Bruce Willis pumping the gas at the local filling station.

One amazing feature of this use of celebrity endorsement is the broadness of mind with which the stars are matched to their respective categories. Examples of the more unlikely pairings are Dennis Hopper with bath tonics, Pierce Brosnan with women's cosmetics, Sylvester Stallone with gift sets of hams and Whitney Houston with investments.
		Anyone for ham?

		Commercials are often aired for a limited period only and indeed the life-cycle of the celebrities as endorsers is startling short. Besides a degree of shamelessness, the main qualification for those seeking repeat work is a distinct "emotional personality".
Bond is back... with lotion

A recent winner in this regard has been Jean Reno, whose laid back Gallic coolness has successfully leant itself to the promotion of canned coffee, sweet alcoholic beverages, isotonic drinks, cars and ..... (comme un francais?) salad dressing.

At JMI, we are offering a box of the finest Japanese sake to those readers who can identify which one of these Hollywood leading men has NOT advertised canned coffee in Japan? Eventual winner, among those answering correctly, will be drawn from a hat:

Good luck and sayonara !!