What do you mean it’s the same!?

When running an ad in Japan no matter how similar the products are, one product will never attack another. Here in the States we pride ourselves on attacking (and suing) each other to prove that one is better than the other.

My all time favorite example is sports drinks. Now for those of you who are reading this, and have tried any brand of sport drink in Japan will agree, they all look and taste pretty much the same. (Okay so some will beg to differ) The actual drink is a semi-transparent white cloud, that has a salty, almost grapefruity kind of taste. One of the most popular (and my favorite) is Pocari Sweat, I know the name sounds so appealing. Amino Supli, Miu, and even Gatorade.

Gatorade Japan really amuses me. In the states we have s surplus of flavors. Take a fruit name, throw the word “ice” or “chill” in there, and you’re all set. However in Japan they have managed to come up with the same exact formula that all the rest of “them” seem to use. Personally I think they should bring that flavor to America and sell it with the name “Ja-pa-ni-zu A-i-su”, write that in katakana (Japanese writing system for foreign words) and because it’s in “asian symbols” Americans will be so impressed they will buy it.

Another example is Apple Japan. If you watch the American “Get a Mac” ad most of the time they are attacking windows. The same goes for way back in the Apple Switch Campaign. In Japan they don’t attack it directly, but simply “reference” it. If anything negative is to be said it simply takes on the name “Pa-so-ko-n” (Japanese for “personal computer”) But-there are more operating systems out there for PC than windows so there is no direct attack.

But anyway- you really can’t find it in Japan. No products has “50% more than that product”, or “one type of drinks works better than the other.”
I got an email from a friend I studied abroad with and attached was this video.

This isn’t a game, it’s an animated wallpaper that probably came with the phone when purchased. The white squirrel is the mascot that AU by KDDI (another top mobile company) uses for their LISMO music service. That mushroom looks familiar doesn’t it? It’s DoCoMo Dake, which is the mascot for NTT DoCoMo. Now I am aware that this is not a public advertisement, and I know that nothing is being said about one being better than the other, but- doing something like this to me is something new. COULD IT BE?!?! Japan is breaking out of its shell?

Perhaps its just Japanese moral that prevents them from doing it, perhaps they are just too polite. I highly doubt it. Dentsu pretty much controls most of the advertising in Japan, which is the true I FEEL is why advertising is the way it is there. Dentsu controls all of the products competitors.