2009-03-26

Let's TV

I was wandering around The Daily Beast and I stumbled upon this interesting little article about celebrities selling out overseas by doing commercials they'd never be caught dead in on the U.S. airwaves.  Not surprisingly, most of the commercials were Japanese ones. 

They're pretty funny and they managed to capture quite a wide range of Japanese products that Dustin and I regularly use. My favorite of all of the commercials is the Wes Anderson-directed one starring Brad Pitt. Though you'd never know it, what's being advertised is the cell phone company yours truly uses herself. Softbank is the company most gaijin (foreigners) use, probably because it's one of the few with a useful English helpline. That came in very handy when our first bill was $250 instead of the $8 we'd expected...

The commercial featuring Ah-nold is for an elixir/energy drink. While Dustin might not drink that specific brand (and maybe he does, I don't scrutinize the bottles), he quite often downs an elixir in the morning for a little boost. Elixirs are everywhere. Typical western medicine isn't falling off the shelves like it is back home, but traditional remedies like a mixture of herbs and vitamins are everywhere. The mindset is that you're not just to drink them when you're immune system is down, but for general health. I can't stomach them. They taste like cough medicine, but slimier. Dustin swears by them. He even bought a few of the Final Fantasy brand elixirs when they were in the conbinis for a few weeks.

Finally, there is a Ben Stiller commercial for Chu-Hi. Not only is that my preferrred Japanese-style drinks, lemon (the flavor advertised here) is usually the flavor I choose. Many girls in Japan pick this up from the conbini and sneak it in to a karaoke session. The last commercial in the article, the Harrison Ford advert for Kirin beer, is selling a beer I sometimes find Dustin drinking.

They are pretty funny.  Check them out yourself:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy Easter!!!

Love-
Tracey, Tanner and Obachan