Even the most culturally sensitive among us has to acknowledge that Japanese commercials are... well, strange. First of all, most Japanese commercial actors hail from the Randy "Macho Man" Savage school of advertising whereby they look directly into the camera and shout the product name as loudly and excitedly as they can.
For example, imagine if Microsoft ended all its new operating system ads by having some guy yell "SNAP INTO VISTA!!!! OOOOOOO YEAAAAAAAAH!!!" and you'll get an idea of what many Japanese ads are like. Second, Japanese commercials will use sex to sell literally anything. Whereas American ads will typically employ sex appeal for products such as perfumes, clothing and shampoos, Japanese ads will use it to sell Canon color laser copiers.
A children's version of the band KISS tours Japan and fights Godzilla
Summary: Four young children get dressed up like cheese-metal '70s band KISS and pretend to sing and play guitar while visiting various sites in Japan. At the end of the ad, Godzilla shows up and begins blasting atomic fire out of his mouth; the children respond by giggling and blasting atomic fire from their mouths as well. This ad is for a Canon digital camera, by the way.
LOL Quotient: 4/10. The decision to have kids dress up as one of America's most embarrassing bands is perplexing, although strangely adorable.
ZOMG Quotient: 7/10. If only that giant radioactive lizard had been around in the early '90s to stop KISS from embarking on their unfortunate collaboration with Michael Bolton.
A man gets beat within an inch of his life because he can't stop thinking about Sega
Summary: A business man hears two children talking about Sega. For some reason, their conversation haunts him all day, and he can think of nothing else. He gets so distracted by this that he accidentally bumps into some goon in an alleyway who proceeds to beat him senseless. We then see him back at his home, where his wife is giving him medical attention. As the camera focuses in on his bruised face, the "SEGA" logo pops up on the screen.
LOL Quotient: 0/10. Unless you enjoy seeing people get clobbered merely for being fixated on video game systems, you won't find anything funny about this ad.
ZOMG Quotient: 10/10. We can't even imagine what the Sega marketing team was thinking when they concocted this ad. We wouldn't be surprised, though, if Nintendo tried to one-up them with a follow-up ad featuring the world's zaniest trampoline accidents.
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Computerworld Live Podcast #97: The Future of Enterprise Networking 25/07/2008 09:45:36
This week CW Live chats with Mark Thompson, global sales and marketing manager for HP ProCurve, on the future of the enterprise networking. Mark discusses the trends we can expect to see in the near future and how the right infrastructure can ensure your enterprise network is secure. - +
Computerworld Live Podcast #96: Security at the Edge 11/06/2008 09:22:22
CW Live speaks with Amol Mitra, HP ProCurve Director of Marketing for Asia Pacific and Japan. Today's topic: how enterprises are starting to shift away from simply controlling security via server logins, firewalls and moving to more adaptive security frameworks. - +
Data Management Edition #10: Multi-Petascale Systems 02/05/2008 09:12:33
This week we look at sustainability and the development of multicore technologies to build multi-petascale systems. - +
IT Security Edition #11: How to poison the Storm botnet 01/05/2008 08:51:55
This week CW Live presents a case study on how to poison the notorious Storm botnet . Plus we take a look at Cisco's plans for Ironport. - +
IT Security Edition #10: Cyber-battles fought and won 24/04/2008 11:09:47
Vendors bow to end user pressure to improve product security, and we take a look at the latest concepts shaping the cyber-battlefield of the future.
Fortinet November Threatscape Report Shows Calm Before Holiday Storm 2008-12-05 16:00:00+11
Epicor® Cited as an Order Management Solutions Leader by Independent Research Firm 2008-12-05 15:52:00+11
F-Secure: Growth In Internet Crime Calls For Growth In Punishment 2008-12-05 13:00:00+11
International researchers gather in Sydney to preview the clever web 2008-12-05 09:48:00+11
Borderless corporate networks to shift focus to secure content management in Australia in 2009 2008-12-04 16:06:00+11
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Discover the current integration challenges facing businesses attempting to deploy on demand CRM systems. Learn how to create comprehensive integration of your data, user interface and business process levels and transform a portfolio of disparate applications into a unified, virtual application suite.












