TV as a Mirror of Society

I met one of the bosses of one of the biggest international television networks in the world the other day. He is a Canadian. He travels all over the world and, because he is in the TV business, he told me that one of his favorite things to do in every country was to judge by TV commercials what things were important to that particular society. 

Japan's TV commercials? Insurance for this or that; home sales; automobiles; financial instruments and plans; candy, cosmetics, fast food... Companies like Zurich, Sekisui, Kanebo.... Japanese commercials that soft sell and are emotive commercials.

I think that's right. 

He also told me that he was "astounded" by just how many over the counter drug and prescription medication commercials there were on US TV all the time. US TV commercials? Drugs, Cholesterol, Machismo ("my ding-a-ling is bigger than yours" commercials); fast food; commercials to make your dick hard, make it soft, put you to sleep, keep you awake, lower blood pressure, lose weight; not to mention commercials galore for people with extreme anxiety and panic attacks and defense attorneys for DUI and more.

Oh, and don't forget the drug side effects disclaimers! 

Very sick society?

Maybe so.

Why is the USA this way? It wasn't that way 50 years ago, was it? 

Here's one piece of anecdotal evidence: Japan has its problems too, but here is something that will drop the jaws of all Americans... Did you know that in Japan, on any given day, you can get on a bus, train or subway and see unaccompanied 5 and 6 year old kids going to and from school?

Little 5 and 6-year-old kids riding the trains by themselves in no fear of danger... And the other passengers think nothing of it. Why? Because that is normal in Japan. It should be normal everywhere... Alas....

Think about that. 

I don't really have any conclusions to point out (I've made mine). Dear reader, please think of the ramifications of what I have written here and come to your own conclusion.

Here is a recent Japanese TV commercial that is a soft sell and very emotive. This is a commercial for a new computer sales and service company.

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Here's a compilation of Japanese commercials, 2014, weeks 10 + 11, I just scanned quickly, but we have a candy commercial (Lotte), a Softbank mobile commercial, an AU mobile commercial, a band promo, Playstation ad, Iberico Pork Donburi commercial, and a real gem at 4:40 -- A Boat Race commercial:

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Thanks to my good friend, James Santagata for co-writing this article with me! James, you are tops!

The Japanese Are Getting Fat - And the Results Won't Be Good

Yes. It's true. The Japanese are getting fat. They are not getting as near as fat as the Americans are, but they are getting fat. Fifteen or twenty years ago, you rarely ever saw a fat Japanese person. Nowadays, you see them all the time.

Along with the fat people here comes to diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes....

No wonder, though... The Japanese are starting to copy SAD (Standard American Diet) and we can already see the future, just by traveling to the USA today, what that means for the Japanese population of tomorrow.

Things like the five-decker hamburger in the poster below used to be unheard of. Now? Just about every restaurant offers "extra sizes" and helpings.

Oxford Journals reports in: 

Coronary heart disease risk in Japan – an East/West divide?

While total cholesterol levels have been decreasing in the US population, a marked increase in the Japanese population began in the 1980s, such that by the later part of the decade, mean levels in Japanese women exceeded those in US adults. These increases appear to be associated with the marked increase in ischaemic heart disease mortality observed in Japanese men and women in the early 1990s.  Japanese men and women who were around 20 years of age at the time of the study had higher cholesterol levels than did their US counterparts. This age group is now around 40 years of age and there is concern that the elevated cholesterol levels may be associated with increased cardiovascular disease as this segment of the population ages. In addition to an increasing prevalence of elevated total cholesterol between 1980 and 1990 for each decade of age, these data also suggest a high prevalence of elevated cholesterol in older, post-menopausal women.

The frequency of diabetes is also increasing in Japan, with survey data indicating a doubling of the prevalence of diabetes between 1980 and 2000. According to Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare statistics, the estimated population of diabetic patients in Japan is expected to increase from 6.9 million in 1997 to 10.8 million in 2010.

(Interestingly enough, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with this article, but the very first McDonald's opened in Japan in 1971!)

You can see what this is going to do to the Japanese in the video preview of "Forks Over Knives" below: