Ads Without Borders : What Are They Thinking in Japan — Hiroshi Sasaki"I drink on a daily basis
Though it sorta cools my temper
It never cools my temper." - 'Karmacoma'.
This is a link to a short article about advertising in Japan, in which beer commercials come under the spotlight, and how advertising of that and other products has been subtly tailored to attract new customers. However, my interest in this particular article is sparked more by an interest in how advertising companies should go about persuading suppliers and vendors of alcohol to dissuade them from making it available to those who are clearly unable to handle its negative effects, which can often impact the lives on those around them in equally negative measure.
There must be thousands, if not millions of households worldwide who have had to live with the effects of raging drunkards running rampage through their daily lives, yet save for a few "don't drink and drive" campaigns which are aired on TV during the weeks around Christmas and the New Year, I can't recall seeing any adverts which address such things as domestic violence and associated mayhem perpetrated by those with behavioural and related problems, frequently if not invariably under the influence of alcohol.
For the most part, advertisers obviously want to sell product, and to that they have to make that product appealing, as we see from the linked article...
Sasaki and his team decided instead on the pure pleasure of that first swallow of a great beer. The result was a series of commercials in which actor Ogata Ken took a swallow of the beer, smiled contentedly and said, "Aa, ureshii," (I'm so happy).
For others, that first swallow is often the spark that ignites a fire of blind rage which can flare up and burn out of control for several hours thereafter, often to the detriment of the family - and friends if any exist - who are frequently in no position to be able to extricate themselves from the situation, either in the short or long-term. The worst damage can be done when people living in the same household get physically injured or indeed killed by drunken monsters venting their frustrations on those close to hand/fist/boot - but there is also an entire litany of anti-social behaviour that can arise, ranging from verbal abuse, stamping around in one or another tantrum, to stealing money or anything else lying around that can be converted into liquid 'refreshment'.
Obviously the drinks industry doesn't want to broadcast negative impressions of their product as they rightly fear that sales will suffer, but at the same I time I think they have a responsibility to the public in general, whether they are customers or not.
But even if the breweries, distilleries and wine-growers did consent to the broadcasting of adverts which highlighted the lowlights of alcohol, or more specifically alcohol abuse, I wonder if there is any effective means of transmitting a message which will have a beneficial effect.
In the UK there have been various TV advertising campaigns warning people of the dangers of drug abuse, which as far as I'm aware, have all been completely unsuccessful in dissuading people from indulging in things like heroin and ecstasy - although curiously, there are entire ranges of drugs which don't seem to be mentioned - LSD, crack and ketamine, for example have never featured in any TV 'just-say-no' ad that I have seen.
So simply constructing adverts which advise people not to abuse alcohol and by default other humans and property etc, clearly won't work - and has been documented elsewhere, many alcohol abusers suffer from conditions such as schizophrenia and similar illnesses, and are very unlikely to be swayed by any type of 'don't-do-it' advertising they happen to see through the miasmic haze of their benighted days. More from the linked article...
In a 1992 lecture (revised in 2000) to a group of aspiring young copywriters, he describes the launch ad for a product as a self-introduction. He then goes on to observe that, while clients who have spent years and fortunes on a product of which they are very proud always want to trumpet its virtues, nobody really likes someone who introduces themselves by saying, "I'm perfect, isn't that great."
But false humility doesn't work either. Suppose, for example, a beautiful Japanese woman, the daughter of a wealthy family and a graduate of the University of Tokyo, says, "I'm just an ordinary girl who likes socializing with my friends." Those who hear this introduction are sure to roll their eyes. The trick is to acknowledge a weakness but to do so in a charming way.
I think this might be a key to devising some sort of campaign directed at those who know they have problems and might be tempted to do something about it - nobody wants to be patronised by someone telling them that what they're doing is wrong and unacceptable, but as Edward Bernays and others realised, it's easier to appeal to people's irrational impulses and modify their behaviour so subtly that those people often don't realise they're being manipulated in the first place.
But at the end of the day I'm not whether TV advertising alone can modify bad behaviour by humans to any great extent - particularly as the industry is heavily geared towards making people feeling better about themselves via the purchase of this or that product. Moreover, commercials are aimed at the public i.e. the consumer, rather than the manufacturers and suppliers of alcohol, who in my opinion need to begin acting in a much more responsible way towards the public; for example they could sponsor any number of help groups for abusers of alcohol, as well as other organisations for helping those who have to suffer the immediate and long-term effects of living - or working - with those who abuse alcohol on a very frequent basis.
A final sip from John McCreery's article...
Thus, when asked to come up with a successor to a long-used catch phrase for Fuji TV, "If it isn't fun, it isn't Fuji TV," he (Sasaki) came up with "If you're tired of TV, Fuji TV."
For a subsequent campaign he developed "Life IS possible without watching Fuji TV"
The problem with alcohol is that all too often life ISN'T possible without getting blind drunk and acting the part of a sociopath - alcoholics are people with their defences down, and the drinks industry thus has a large customer base who will be committed to their product for life - the ideal clients.
Mixed metaphor mini-rant ends.
see also : The Word Works
'Karmacoma' video @ YouTube
image from here
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