Bizarro commercial

This one has been on for a while now, but I have just recently (re) joined the forum so I thought I'd throw it out there. (I'll admit I'm not sure where to post this as this forum seems to have a glut of sub- upon sub-categories.)

That ever-popular employer of many a gaikokujin, NOVA, has a commercial on TV, that boggles the mind.

Summary: Two guys sitting around watching TV. Suddenly on the news a guy comes on announcing Japan is falling into the ocean and everyone must evacuate.

One guy turns to the other: "I should have gone to NOVA (to learn another language)."

NO-VA! End of commercial.

The oddly dark nature of this humor is alleviated somewhat by the fact that some of the footage in the commercial is from the (remake) movie "Nihon Chinbotsu" which is about--of course--Japan falling into the sea. Does NOVA own stock in TOHO or whoever produced this film?

Weird.

Dude, I thought American commercials were the height of ridiculousness, absurdity, and stupidity. Then I saw Japanese commercials. While not necessarily stupid, they are often ridiculous and absurd, often to the point of hysterical randomness and what?-ism.

Another bizarre commercial, this one asking "What would Moses drink if he really needed to urinate?"

We then see a (Japanese) Moses drinking furiously, and the sublime slogan: "ﾋ?ｹ窶堙楪、ﾂ出窶堋ｷﾂ。ﾂ"ﾂ or, in romaji, "Nomu, dasu." (essentially, you drink it, it passes through you and out.)

I'd like to sit in on a marketing course in Japan and see what people discuss about Japanese demographics, market research, etc.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what's so ridiculously bizarre about the NOVA commercial you mention. It just seems like a humorous play on the theme of a summer blockbuster movie -- something that all viewers would be expected to know about.

Does NOVA own stock the in the film company? I have no idea, but it seems more likely that advertising people from the two companies got together and decided that it would be an effective (and amusing) way to promote both products. Doesn't strike me as anything mind-bogglingly weird.

I don't know, there are a number of Japanese commercials that I find genuinely funny. Many of them are pretty random, I guess, but I've always enjoyed random humor in my own language/culture as well.

jt_ said:

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see what's so ridiculously bizarre about the NOVA commercial you mention. It just seems like a humorous play on the theme of a summer blockbuster movie -- something that all viewers would be expected to know about.

Click to expand...

No, that NOVA one wasn't so bad.

Doesn't strike me as anything mind-bogglingly weird.

Click to expand...

I dunno, man. I've seen a few Japanese commercials that simply defy description. Like one for this kid's snack I saw a few years ago. I understand Japanese enough to catch what they were saying, but the context was... inexplicable. It was also one of the funniest things I'd seen, too.

You're absolutely right that the commercial makes more "sense" when one is aware of the movie's release. I first saw the commercial never having heard of the movie--and in that context was taken aback by the (to me) odd persuasive strategy, though I'm sure you're right that it was meant to be humorous. I am sometimes slow on the uptake with Japanese humor (and proud of it. )

As far as two companies getting together to promote products, I'm sure such a deal must have been brokered. My question on owning stock in TOHO was meant as a humorous play on the theme of companies working together to convince people to part with their cash.