Marketing Japan: Lots of Japanese Toys & More from the 1960's!

This just came across my desk and I thought it was a gas. It's a collection of TV commercials from the 1960's made by John Behrens and it is called, "Batteries Not Included."

I thoroughly enjoyed this film and was especially pleased that I am allowed to embed this on this site for your viewing pleasure. I remember some of these toys from the 1960's and wish I hadn't of bashed them up. Some of them are worth a fortune now! Especially the made in Japan cars that, when you examined them closely, you could see that they were fashioned out of aluminum beer cans I saw some of those in mint condition selling at a toy show a few years ago and they were going for $500 ~ $900 each!

Here are John Behrens comments:

Batteries Not Included a Film by John Behrens:

Batteries Not Included is a film that I put together early this year, after I made the film I did not know what to do with it because it is so much different than the Experimental art films that I am most known for doing. I decided to release this film on the internet and I thought the best place to do this would be right here on the Internet Archives.

About the Film:
Almost as long as I have been a filmmaker I have also been a film collector. I have for many years wanted to assemble a collection of vintage toy commercials into a flowing little feature length film, that feature all of these wonderful toys from 1950's 1960's and 1970's all of the major toy companies are represented in this film. Matel, Ideal, Hasbro, Marx, Aurora and many many others. So strap your self in and take a trip back through your childhood and you may discover a commercial for a toy that had a kid and my hope is that it will spark pleasant memory's from those days.


Enjoy and Best Regards
Jon Behrens

I greatly enjoyed this film and wish that you can see it now (or come back later when you have the chance). Wow! What a time trip!

This is a wonderful film and will take you back to a better time. For those of us born in the mid-1950's, it is a reminder that we were so lucky to have been born and lived in the most golden time that the USA ever had or probably ever will have.

Grab some popcorn, get your girl and watch this movie. Enjoy!   

To go to the original link, click here.... Tell them I sent you!

Nicholas Cage in Japanese Pachinko TV Commercial

Over the years, many famous actors and actresses from the west have appeared in Japanese TV commercials. It used to be that they could do these kinds of jobs, and take the money and run and their fans in the west wouldn't know about it.

James Colburn appeared in many cigarette commercials in Japan

But, now with the advent of the Internets, they can't get away with that anymore.


Now, they had better do commercials that, if someone back home does see them, they won't be too embarrassed nor will the commercials hurt their "coolness factor" nor their credibility.

Nicholas Cage did a bunch of those of those. He was in a series of commercials for pachinko (a kind of Japanese pinball gambling machine).


Enjoy!:

The First TV Broadcasting in Japan

Nihon TV (日本テレビ）was the very first TV station to ever broadcast in Japan. They changed their name to Nippon TV in 1993.

Here is their opening sequence from 7 o'clock am on August 28, 1953:

While I predict that many of the other major Japanese broadcasters will collapse after the digital conversion on July 24, 2011. I believe that Nihon TV and Fuji TV will be able to survive.

Read more on Nippon TV at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nippon_Television

Original Oronamin C Ads from 1971

There are lots of things that really represent Japan to me. There is the old saying, "The Sun, cooked eggs and loving the Tokyo Giants" are signs of a true Japanese person (they really do say this too!)

But one thing that has always represented Japan to me is Oronamin C. Oronamin C is a citrus health drink and this drink is available everywhere in Japan. I want to show you an interesting TV ad from the late 1971 for this "health drink." I think you'll find it interesting...

There's not a Japanese person alive who doesn't know this drink.

There's not a Japanese alive over 25 who doesn't know Kon Omura, the guy who was the face of Oronamin in the 1960's and 1970's.

Kon Omura selling Oronamin C... 

Probably one of the most successful ad campaigns in Japanese history

Oronamin C was originally sold as a health drink. But the manufacturer, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, had problems. As Wikipedia states:

While originally sold as a medical health drink with carbonation added, the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare filed a claim resulting in the judgement that Oronamin C could not be labeled as a medical health drink. This was a difficult time for Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., but before long, the Genki hatsuratsu television advertisement featuring comedian Kon Omura (Ōmura Kon, born May 8, 1956) became recognizable nation-wide, and Oronamin C grew into a best-selling health drink in Japan.

In the past, many competing companies have introduced similar health drinks in an attempt to topple the current market oligopoly, but so far, none have been successful. 

Check out this funny commercial that shows all the different uses for this "health drink" (including mixing it with things like raw eggs and hard liquor!)

Mixing Oronamin C a "health drink" with whiskey!? Well, that makes sense in Japan... Especially since, if you go outside of Tokyo and into the countryside, you can find many drug stores and pharmacies selling cigarettes right next to aspirin and other medical goods.

Ah, the daily contradictions of life in Japan!

Oronamin C on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oronamin

The Funniest Japanese TV Commercials I've Ever Seen

OK. These are the best.

This is a series of Fanta commercials (with English subtitles) and these are hilarious! They are even better if you've been to Japan or live here.

I've watched these several times and still laugh everytime.

The description reads:

A series of Fanta commercials from Japan. Now with English "fansub" subtitles!

By the way, "dorobo neko", which I translated literally as "thieving cat", is a slang term that refers to a woman who chases after a man married to someone else.

Bizarre! High Blood Pressure TV Commercial from Japan

Japan has some very unusual products on sale. Japanese TV has some very weird stuff.

One of the more popular products over these last 10 years or so are drinks that help lower blood pressure. There's all sorts of them.

Mix the weird products with the weird TV and what do you get? Very weird TV commercials.

Here is a commercial for tea that lowers blood pressure:



Thanks to Mentalfloss

The German Sprite TV Commercial That Didn't Make it to the USA...

My good friend in the United States, Mark Davis, just sent a link to to me for a TV commercial for the soft drink Sprite. Mark claims that this is an actual German TV commercial that, of course, didn't make it on American TV. There's no way that this could ever make it on Japanese TV either. I wish one of my readers in Germany could confirm this for me.

But before I show you that one, to warm you up, here is definitely a real German TV commercial for Berlitz English schools, making fun of the German Coast Guard. I thought this one was hilarious:

See original video here.

That one is pretty funny, eh? OK. I hope you are ready for this next one! Please! Do not click this link if you do not have an open mind or if you are around children. It is not safe for work!

GERMAN SPRITE SOFT DRINK TV CM - Do not click this at work or around children!

Of course, there is the classic Dutch TV commercial for learning English that now has over 6 million views (this one isn't safe for work or children either!):

The reason why commercials like this do not make it on TV in Japan has nothing to do with government censors. In Japan, there are no government censors at TV and radio stations. Really! The stations censor themselves. That is why on late night Japanese TV you can see full frontal nudity and more. In the late 1980's my favorite two shows were called, "Tissue Time" (I bet you guys can guess what that was all about) and "the Eleven PM Show" (more nudity there)... Forgive me ladies, I was much younger then!

The funniest thing about the "the Eleven PM Show" was that it started at 11:30 at night. Guess they could have used English lessons too!

Thanks to Mark Davis. See Mark's writings at Strike-the-Root here.

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Keywords:
TV, Japan, TV commercials, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Sprite. German TV commercials, German Coast Guard