Japanese_Commercials_vs_American_Commercials

Japanese Commercials vs. American Commercials Japan and the United States, two of the largest markets of the world, “lead the world in TV advertising expenditures, jointly sharing 70 percent of that market” (Hooper qtd. by Lin 40). The markets of the countries share many common traits, but they differ in three major aspects. First, Japanese commercials’ main marketing strategy is soft sell, while the main strategy of American commercials’ is hard sell; second, Japanese commercials use celebrities very often, while US commercials do not; third, Japanese commercials use many gimmicks when advertising their products, while US commercials are much more straightforward in their ways of advertisement. These discrepancies between Japanese and American commercials can ultimately be explained by cultural differences; the Japanese culture is a high-context culture, while the American culture is a low-context culture. The main marketing strategy of Japanese commercials is ‘soft-sell’ – a strategy in which a commercial “appeals to emotion, family, [and] your place in society” (McCulloch 5). Japanese commercials focus much more on the surroundings of the product being advertised than on the product itself. The main objective of Japanese commercials is not to persuade, but to communicate “the feeling of the product’s allure and familiarity” (5). An example of ‘soft-sell’ would be a commercial for a hot drink that has been on TV during the last couple days. It shows a businesswoman drinking a hot drink, putting the drink down with a satisfied smile, and joining a random group of people who are dancing in a train station. Next, she starts to lead the group into choreographed movements. Throughout the whole commercial, not a single fact about the product, such as what vitamins or nutrients are in the drink, or how much it costs, was provided. Instead, the entirety of the commercial was only filled with the happy emotion that is supposedly associated with the hot drink. On the other hand, typical American commercials use the ‘hard-sell’ approach, which is defined as the technique used in commercials where “direct logic, convincing proof of the product’s quality” is used to promote said product (5). An American commercial for a fast-food restaurant such as McDonalds, Wendy’s, or Burger King would be perfect to illustrate this difference in advertisement. In a typical American fast-food commercial, the product is advertised with vivid descriptions and imagery; there is a deep voice that narrates how the patty is thick, juicy, and grilled, and there are images of hamburger patties on a grill, and fresh pieces of lettuce and tomatoes stacked up, making up a delicious-looking burger. Unlike the commercials in Japan, American commercials mainly focus on the product itself, while Japanese commercials focus on the emotions that are associated with the product. Another main difference between Japanese and American ads is the use of famous celebrities. According to Kobayashi, approximately 80 percent of Japanese advertisements feature famous celebrities (McCulloch 3). In Japanese commercials, it is “common for celebrities and TV personalities to endorse products and services with their words or songs” (Akiyama 94). Because Japan is a culturally homogeneous society where fitting in with the group is expected, when famous celebrities endorse products, the consumers feel good about buying a product endorsed by a famous celebrity; so the more famous the celebrity, the better the effectiveness of the advertisement. If a famous celebrity appears on a commercial in Japan, then the viewers “gain confidence in the product because the star is familiar to them and a good role model” (McCulloch 4). On the contrary, famous celebrities rarely appear on American television to endorse a certain product because if a celebrity in the US endorses a product in a commercial, than the celebrity is considered to have ‘sold-out’, having become a “greedy, corporate lackey” (4). This difference in the attitude towards celebrities in commercials can most likely be attributed to the fact that in Japan, to fit in with the group is the norm, thus the prevalence of celebrities in commercials; while in the States, it is preferable to be yourself and idiosyncratic Another major difference between Japanese and American commercials is the method each country uses to advertise products. Japanese commercials strive to present their product creatively by using lots of textures; “music, jingles, normal people, celebrities, fantasy, reality, sexy images, foreign people and words” (McCulloch 7). On the other hand, American commercials are much more straight-to-the-point with how their products are advertised, and focus on the product’s trustworthiness. Unlike Japanese commercials that focus on impressing the viewer with creative methods of presenting a product, American commercials “appeal to things like nationalistic ‘Made in the USA’ kind of language with wholesome images to promote trust, or very direct language to assure the consumer the product can be trusted” (7). Because the Japanese are used to group thinking, they do not need to be convinced of the product’s quality as much, and in a typical Japanese buyer-seller relationship, the “buyer is viewed as ‘God’”, and “high quality is taken for granted” (Johansson 15). Therefore, convincing the potential buyers of trustworthy products is unnecessary, making room for “other elements like safe, cute things” in their commercials (McCulloch 7). However, because Americans are individualistic and less willing to accept the beliefs and values presented in commercials, their ads focus more on convincing the viewers that their product is reliable, and not creativity, which is considered “childish gimmicks intended to distract you from the truth” (7). Again, the cultural differences between Japan and the United States have caused the commercials of the two countries to develop into something quite opposite from each other. Japanese culture is considered to be high-context, which means a culture that “assign[s] meaning to many of the stimuli surrounding an explicit message” (McCulloch 2). Meanwhile, American culture is considered low-context, which means it “exclude[s] many of those stimuli and focus more intensely on the objective communication event, whether it be a word, a sentence, or a physical gesture” (2). Because of this major cultural difference, the Japanese and the US have come to approach commercials with totally different attitudes, resulting in the difference between the commercials from the two countries that can be seen today. (1019 words) Works Cited 1. Akiyama, Koji. “A Study of Japanese TV Commercials from Socio-cultural Perspectives: Special Attributes of Non-verbal Features and Their Effects”. Intercultural Communication Studies. III:2. (1993): 87-113. 2. Johansson, Johny K.. “The Sense of ‘nonsense’: Japanese TV Advertising. Journal of Advertising. Vol 17(4). Mar. (1994): 12-26. 3. Lin, Carolyn A. “A Cultural Differences in Message Strategies: A Comparison Between American and Japanese TV Commericals. Journal of Advertising Research. July/August (1993): 40-48. 4. McCulloch, Liz. “Japanese Ads Require Finesse, Not In-your-face Antics, Speaker Says.” Medill News – Northwestern University. 9 April. 2004: 12-26.