Black is the new toothpaste

As we've mentioned previously on this blog, there is a curious 'trend' here in Japan to make stuff Black that wouldn't - and shouldn't - normally be Black. There was Black Tissue Paper. We've seen Black Toilet Paper.

And now, courtesy of Kobayashi Seiyaku ('healthcare company'), we have Black Toothpaste.

Here's the Brief:
Product Name: Sumigaki ('sumi' means 'coal' and 'migaki' means 'to brush'. get it?)
(Background: Coal based cleansers (soaps) are quite common here and said to be good for cleaning and for skin. It's not straight coal of course, just an ingredient. An ingredient that makes stuff Black.)
Benefit: Bad breath prevention
RTB: Coal kills germs that cause bad breath
The Kicker: It's Black! (like coal, see?)
The Idea: Makes your breath beautiful.

To their credit, they don't claim Whitening.

Let there be green

Over the holidays, I saw a friend from the States. She told me how she was impressed with Japan being 'eco-conscious,' which I was not quite aware of. But I guess she is right; here is the latest campaign from au, a mobile phone product/service provider:


This is how the Green Road Project works:

STEP 1: You jog with au phone with jogging application and keep and send the record to au.
STEP 2: au saves 1 JPY per a kilo that runners gain through their jogging routines.
STEP 3: au purchases plant seeds with the savings and distribute the seeds at their stores.

The campaign runs through the end of March, and the seed distribution starts from April. Although it doesn't directly benefit the phone/application users, it certainly does give a great sense of membership and feeling great about doing something to stay fit.

A cool campaign and site.

Green Green Green

In the ad world, this has been a topic; One theme, different executions for different cultures (or as we sometimes call them, 'markets'). See these:





The top is a Japanese TV ad and the bottom is from Thailand. There are two points I found interesting:

1) Contextualism
'Green Machine' is, I guess, grammatically correct. But this is an epiphany of 'Japanese style English' such as 'We Do Eco' (by a railway company), in which we contextually take out the meaning, not necessarily the meaning the slogan (or tag line) mandates (e.g. Just Do It). If you really get strict, 'Green Machine' is not even a tag line; it's just a generic noun with an adjective. However, the Japanese can create a series of TVC with the help of Peanut Characters to convey the core message. I think this is amazing.

2) Assimilation, not persuasion
Though different in formats, both Japanese and Thai versions adopted 'teacher-learner' scheme (of course more evident in Thai version). I suspect these show Asian sentiment that consumer engagement can be attained through 'let us all learn together' model. Although this is an dealer ad, take a look at this:



They all deal with Honda's eco-friendly cars (theme), but message conveyance and its manner (execution) gets varied from one culture to another. Certainly, I as a Japanese can relate more with the Japanese ver. and Thai ver. far better to consider Honda's good gas-mileage or hybrid cars.