Secrets of Japanese advertising

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Secrets of Japanese advertising strategy
How Japanese companies use Hollywood stars to market and promote Japanese products

By Eimi Graham

Hundreds of foreigners arrive in Japan every day hoping to make a quick buck and Japan has traditionally offered unique opportunities for them. Women from The Philippines and many other countries who work as hostesses/prostitutes, Caucasian women from all over who work as models or in adult entertainment establishments, lots of young men from English-speaking countries who come to teach English, and then there are others who engage in all kinds of shady activities in Japan – like selling phone cards in Ueno or stealing cars and shipping them to China. The reason that these people can strike gold in Japan is because they offer something valuable to the society in most cases – Japanese people like to explore women from other countries, studying English is a national pastime among young women, and a lot of Japanese do use these cheap phone cards (though phone companies keep cracking down on them by altering technology).

There is another group of people who come to make a killing in Japan – Hollywood stars. The Japanese watch Hollywood movies in droves. Most movies are released in Japan relatively soon and it is customary for lead stars to make a trip to Japan to promote the movie. In fact most male Hollywood stars are big celebrities in Japan though female stars are known but Japanese men tend not to show the same passion in embracing them as women do. The Japanese companies realize this and in one of the world’s largest markets for advertising, they hire the most popular Hollywood celebrities to promote all kinds of products. The reason is also simple – money. Millions of dollars are paid by Japanese corporations to fit these Hollywood icons into their advertising strategy. Here is a sampling of what some of these stars are currently promoting/advertising or have promoted/advertised in the past:

Celebrities	Advertised Product
Antonio Banderas	Cars
Leonardo DiCaprio	Credit cards
Meg Ryan	Cosmetics and tea
Brad Pitt	Canned coffee and Levi’ s jeans
Michael J Fox	Cars, fishing store, and soft drink
Mark Wahlberg	Soft drink
Nicolas Cage	Pachinko
Tiger Woods	Coffee and soft drink
Stevie Wonder	Coffee
Demi Moore	Protein drink
Bruce Willis	Gas station
Kevin Costner	Cars
Cameron Diaz	English school
Ewan McGregor	English school
Catherine Zeta Jones	Shampoo
Penelope Cruz	Shampoo

The interesting part is that none of these stars would advertise/promote these products in the United States. The commercials in Japan for consumer products have a totally different feel – the kind run by your local hair salon. Many people call these commercials ‘tacky’, ‘cheesy’, or simply ‘stupid’. Plus, some of these stars push alcohol or tobacco products – a complete NO in the US.

The reason for the success of Hollywood stars in advertising/promoting Japanese products to Japanese is simple – the fascination with Amerika. In a country where almost all mannequins in department stores and hair salons are blonde, it is not difficult to identify with Harrison Ford selling Kirin beer.

I would like to see the day when a Japanese car company hires a Japanese celebrity to push Japanese cars in the United States. I think that advertising strategy is unlikely to be formulated by a consulting firm.