Tarantino's Softbank ad is hilarious, baffling
We recently mentioned that Quentin Tarantino was shooting a commercial for Japan's Softbank. Well, here's the finished product. It's both mystifying and awesome at the same time. Not that it will help, but here's some background on the campaign, from Julie in Japan: In the ads, the father is a white dog, the mother is a Japanese woman, the daughter is a famous Japanese pop star and the brother is an African-American man. The ads are funny because the father is really strict but he's a dog, so he's adorable. The family doesn't make any sense to look at, but they act like a regular, typical Japanese family and that's why it's funny. And here's a loose translation of the dialogue from a CNet reader: It starts with the older woman asking the dog if he's going to a town called Tosa. The dog says yes. Then, the younger woman asks if Tarantino is going along, whereupon he declares "I am Tara!" At that point, in the long version, Tarantino does his samurai impression "Hai-ya! Samurai spirit!! Get him with the samurai sword! Ho-ha!" etc. The dog says "I'm determined to go to Tosa!" The older woman tells Tara to calm down, and he says "Yes". Then, the phone rings, the younger woman says "It's the phone", and the older woman says "It's your wife." Tara gasps. The wife asks for Tara, he responds with another "I am Tara!", then she yells "Get home right now!" For a more straightforward set of celebrity Softbank ads, check out Brad Pitt's work for the company. —Posted by Tim Nudd |
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Published on December 8, 2009 | Permalink
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Quentin Tarantino to appear in Softbank ads
Quentin Tarantino threatens to single-handedly set U.S.-Japanese relations back to pre-Godzilla days in an upcoming Softbank commercial. The clip above, screened by the bank at a conference, shows the director hamming it up during rehearsal. He joins the popular "White Family" campaign, which features a talking-dog father and an older brother played by American comedian Dante Carter. Tarantino will play "Uncle Tara-chan," and it looks like he's channeling John Belushi's old "Samurai Night Fever" routine, but Belushi was actually more restrained. Brad Pitt, who starred in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, appeared in some Softbank ads this summer, playing the personal assistant of a Sumo champ. There's no humongous wrestler in Tarantino's spot, as far as we can tell. But this is an Asian commercial, so the presence of a talking dog as the head of a mixed-race (and breed!) family should come as no surprise. —Posted by David Gianatasio Previously on AdFreak: |
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Published on November 13, 2009 | Permalink
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BK unveils septa-patty Windows 7 Whopper
Burger King in Japan is so thrilled about Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system that it's cooked up a giant seven-patty Whopper in honor of it. According to Engadget, it will be available for seven days only, and the first 30 customers can buy it for 777 yen (that's about $8.50). For latecomers, it will cost 1,450 yen (about $17). It's not clear whether the sandwich will make it to the U.S., where rogue BK employees now seem lame for making four-patty "Quoppers" for their friends. |
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Published on October 22, 2009 | Permalink
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Give Google's street-view maker a little hug
Google Japan put together this animated video to show how the street view works on Google Maps, apparently on the assumption that there's nothing quite like a Wall-E-style character to ease the fears of people worried about privacy. (The clip shows the machine dutifully responding to feedback and working late into the night to blur out license-plate numbers and names on mailboxes.) There's no sign of an animated Phillip Garrido, either. Also, check out this awesome gallery of Google street-view pics on Art Fag City. Via Boing Boing and The Denver Egotist. |
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Published on September 10, 2009 | Permalink
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Brad Pitt serves a sumo in Softbank's spots
In the grand tradition of Americans doing wacky Asian ads, Brad Pitt is back with a few more commercials for Japan's Softbank. In the new spots, directed by Spike Jonze, Pitt plays a personal assistant to sumo champ Musashimaru. The tagline is, "Serving you in any way necessary," which in Pitt's case involves Pitt feeding sushi to the 520-pound Samoan (in the ad above) and daintily carrying him when his shoe breaks (in the ad below). In reality, Softbank's slogan is quite literal. It's is a diversified corporation that owns a financial-services company and the Fukuoka Hawks baseball team, and is the official carrier for the Japanese iPhone 3G. Clearly, they have enough money to hire Western talent (including, previously, Wes Anderson) to wipe the mouths of their yokozuna when the moment arises. |
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Published on August 25, 2009 | Permalink
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Japan sells government bonds with taxi ads
As the U.S. continues to set new records for deficit spending, America could look to Japan for a little inspiration, at least when it comes to advertising government bonds. Late last month, Japan's ministry of finance began hawking bonds on the backs of Tokyo taxi seats. The pitch, which will also use posters (like the one here) and TV spots, is the latest in a series of campaigns using celebrities to flog the country's massive debt. Earlier ads starred Koyuki, the one-named actress and model who starred alongside Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai. Current ads feature Junko Kubo, a former anchor on Japan's public broadcaster NHK. They use the tagline, "Peace of mind. Piece of happiness." That promise of mental bliss is a hard sell: At current spending levels, Japan's debt is expected to become 197 percent of GDP next year and 300 percent within 10 years. The lessons of Japan, itself the second-largest holder of U.S. government paper, appear to be lost on Washington: By the end of fiscal year 2010, U.S. debt is expected to reach nearly 100 percent of GDP, meaning that for every dollar the U.S. economy produces, the government will owe a dollar. —Posted by Noreen O'Leary |
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Published on August 24, 2009 | Permalink
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Wieden takes a closer look at gamers' faces
Wieden + Kennedy in Tokyo has rolled out a new Sony PlayStation 3 campaign called PlayFace, showing the facial contortions that gamers make while they're playing. It's all pretty stylish and exaggerated—the players also make lots of buzzing, beeping and cracking sound effects, which gives them a robotlike aspect. But despite all the bells and whistles, as AdFreak sister blog PDNPulse points out, there's been some grousing that the PlayFace work (the idea, if not the execution) is similar to some still photos that artist Phil Toledano did in 2002, also showing gamers' faces. Toledano tells the gaming blog Kotaku that Wieden "ripped me off," but that seems a bit excessive. Toledano's insight—that people let their guard down when they're focused intently on something (like gaming), and that you can see "a hidden part of their character" in those moments—itself wasn't so new. Philippe Halsman did similar stuff in the pre-video-game 1950s, when he began taking pictures of people while they were jumping—and had to focus on that, rather than on posing for the camera. (Halsman's work eventually inspired some cool ads for HBO's Six Feet Under.) PDN further points to some 2008 gamer portraits by Robbie Cooper, who had basically the same idea as Toledano. Seems like lots of people have been down this road. UPDATE: Compare Wieden's ad to Cooper's "Immersion" video below. |
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Published on August 21, 2009 | Permalink
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Killer marketing in terrifying toilets of Japan
In America, public restrooms can be creepy, either because of the condition or the company. But in Japan, going to the bathroom seems to be one step short of sleeping naked in a graveyard. Looking to tap this fear with a cute marketing twist is Ring author Koji Suzuki, whose new bathroom-based horror novella Drop is being printed on rolls of toilet paper. Billed as "a horror experience in the toilet," the story takes up only about three feet of paper. You may need the rest of the roll to write a desperate plea for help, because Japanese bathrooms are apparently scary places to hang out. First, there's Hanako-San, the ghost of a schoolgirl who has scared kids to the point where some would rather pee in class than risk a restroom run-in. Then there's Kashima Reiko, a bisected ghost who wanders school bathrooms saying, "Where are my legs?" But my favorite is this note from the Suzuki article: "Parents would tease children that a hairy hand might pull them down into the dark pool below." That's some scary shit. —Posted by David Griner |
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Published on May 26, 2009 | Permalink
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Japan hits the gutter with bikini-bowling ad
This completely insane Japanese ad, promoting some kind of hair-removal product, raises an interesting point: How the hell did America miss the boat on bikini body bowling? That pretty much sums up everything we currently like about television, except for a vacuous celebrity host, who would be easy enough to add in place of that armpit-hair closeup. I'd be more than happy never seeing that again. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on May 18, 2009 | Permalink
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Google tackles a new market with old media
It's telling and rather ironic that Google's first TV commercials support its 9-month-old Chrome, last spotted battling Opera for market share at the ass end of the Web-browser wars. For all that's been said about the Big G's "natural monopoly" in search, companies must adapt, grow and diversify to thrive. No monopoly lasts forever. Just ask AT&T. Eventually, Yahoo!, MSN or—more likely—some service being dreamed up now in a dorm room somewhere will supplant Google at the top of the search heap. No product stays No. 1 for all time. Just ask Netscape. Or Friendster. Or MySpace. Google will need new and vital offerings to keep itself at the forefront. One or two successful extensions might be enough. Just ask Apple. Ultimately, Google's foray into old-school mass media to tout Chrome underscores that the firm is neither evil nor omniscient. It's just another company, on top now but pressured by other search firms, social media and government regulators. Chrome's launch and the subsequent ad play can be interpreted as the company asking itself, "For Google, what comes next?" That's the right question, but it ranks among the few the company's iconic search window can't answer for certain. |
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Published on May 11, 2009 | Permalink
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Dole ad from Japan really very unappetizing
I always thought bananas were pretty straightforward, but this Dole commercial from Japan suggests otherwise. I also assumed people shied away from eating fruit that just shot out of someone's nose, but it turns out I was wrong about that, too. One thing I'm sure of, though, is this commercial did not make me want to eat any Dole banana products. Or look at a banana ever again. And this isn't the first time Japan has made me re-evaluate my opinions about something, either. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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Published on April 9, 2009 | Permalink
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