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Sunday, May 5, 2019

Promotional Video Analysis: Softbank & Tommy Lee Jones (With analysis of Japanese advertising)

This advertisement is from Japanese mobile phone network providers Softbank, featuring the American actor Tommy Lee Jones and the famous Softbank dog 'Oto-san' (means Father). He is the patriarch of the family, in which Jones plays an alien who has come to earth to study human beings. Japan is known for having such bizarre commercials and this definitely is in that category. Though, this is more normal in comparison to some.
The commercial is advertising the new and improved Softbank connection, and shows a customer getting frustrated about his area not yet receiving upgraded connection. The commercial has a comedic and lighthearted approach, rather than an overly informative and boring approach. The advert doesn't actually provide any information until the end, which is even still not alot of information other than the fact that the connection is upgrading from area to area.
An effective convention Softbank use is having a familiar face throughout their advertisements. That familiar face is Oto-san, the dog. Softbank have done over 100 adverts with the dog, which is a friendly face for both adults and children in the audience.
Japanese commercials are typically more outrageous because advertisers do not prioritise the message, they instead prioritise entertainment. A Japanese advertiser's thought process is that if the product or company is associated with happy thoughts, it is a positive thing. This is why Japanese commercials have catchy songs (see below for 1. Giga Pudding song), bright colours (see below for 2. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu KFC commercial) or famous celebrities advertising products (see below for 3. Ayumi Hamasaki commercial). Japanese commercials are also typically shorter than western ones, so they either have the choice of cramming in alot of information into an incredibly short space of time or creating an image or song that sticks with the audience's mind, thus typically ending up being rather whacky or significant. Here are some more examples of Japanese commercials:
1. Giga Pudding
2. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu Krushems
3. Ayumi Hamasaki for Panasonic Lumix

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