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Reach for the Stars

by David Kilburn

It all began in the early 1970's when Bristol Myers' success with Vitalis (hair oil) threatened to put an old-fashioned Japanese toiletry firm out of business.

Asked to help, Dentsu gave them a modern name, Mandom, and TV commercials with Charles Bronson. This turned the company's fortunes around and created a new genre in Japanese advertising. Dentsu followed Bronson up with David Niven and also recruited Alain Delon for Renown, Orson Welles for Nikka Whisky, and Sammy Davis, Jr., for Suntory White. Not to be out done, Hakuhodo persuaded Paul Newman to advertise Nissan's Skyline.

Since those distant days, over 400 Western celebrities have graced Japanese advertisements, with many more to come.

With help from the stars, many otherwise barely distinguishable brands can be easily set apart. The "coffee wars" represent a good cross-section of competitive advertisers. Nescafe, represented by McCann-Erickson, uses ordinary slices of life from Europe. Dentsu answers this challenge with "Gold" commercials featuring well-known (and rich) Japanese personalities. Both go after the high-class image, even though the product happens to be a lowly instant coffee that sells in the stores for less than Y1,000. Not to be looked down on, Ajinomoto General Foods' instant coffees are sipped by such "aristocrats" as Roots author Arthur Haley, aging actor Kirk Douglas and former astronaut Scott Carpenter.

All this may be academic, since Japanese viewers are not concerned with what is being said in English. "Japanese audiences usually do not grasp the words the stars speak in English," says Kazuhiro Shitaya manager of Hakuhodo's casting department. "It [English] simply adds atmosphere to the commercial.

It's true that the associations with products may appear odd but there are usually other] connections. Eating meat, for example, is thought to make one strong. So Ito Ham uses muscular personalities [like Sylvester 'Rambo' Stallone] to express this concept." Logical connections between the star and the product notwithstanding, the appearance of a Hollywood movie star in Japanese advertising can produce dramatic results.

Stuffy old Mitsubishi Electric Corp. used pop singer Madonna to launch a new video recorder in 1987 and was astonished to find that she had done more than help sell products--she had literally transformed the stodgy company's image. After the Madonna ad campaign, researchers found that most Japanese people no longer considered Mitsubishi Electric a conservative company. Madonna also doubled the company's share of the domestic VCR market to 13%. "Mitsubishi Electric's Madonna campaign led to enhanced usage of musicians in advertising," said Kunihiro Takenaka, Dentsu's talent and casting manager. "Madonna also increased the overall interest in using foreign talent here. Clients want talent that can achieve the same dramatic results."

Not surprisingly, Japanese advertising agencies are extremely reluctant to discuss the use of movie stars in advertising, particularly plans for future spots. But Takenaka says that the evidence that these commercials (CMs) work is irrefutable He cites Dentsu's use of Star Wars' innovative director George Lucas to add some spark to "Manneshita" (copycat) Matsushita Electric's dull image, strong-man Arnold Schwarzenegger's pumping up of Nisshin Cup noodles sales and Hollywood sex symbol Mickey Rourke's adding of allure to the domestic Suntory label, which must compete with world class scotches.

The commercials of George Lucas, a movie director whose far-out . ideas revolutionized modern cinema, tried to improve Matsushita Electric's image as a company capable of creating new ideasMovie superstar Schwarzenneger's goofy boob tube antics have given new life to an aging brand. Mickey Rourke, once called "the sexiest man in Hollywood," has no doubt made Suntory Reserve more attractive for domestic imbibers, particularly young Japanese women wild about Mickey-chan and his soft-porn movies, such as 9 1/2 Weeks and Wild Orchid. "We've had very good results with Mickey Rourke," says Masahide Kanzaki of Suntory, Japan's largest user of foreign movie stars in commercials. "Whisky, brandy, bourbon, and wine are all foreign products. In developing images for our brands, it sometimes helps to have the international touch foreign talent can bring. There are also times when this can bring a feeling of authenticity," Kanzaki explained.

Soft-porn actors are one thing but the sophisticated use of modern music in advertising is quite another. Although Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola pioneered music marketing in the United States, it took Madonna to show Japanese advertisers what this exciting technique could really do for them. About 100 singers and musicians have made commercials in Japan since 1980 with a third of these appearing within the last two years. McCann-Erickson Hakuhodo's TDK Corp. audio tape campaign represents a good example of this advertising genre. Such well-known and up-and-coming modern musicians as Gazz Mayall, Jimmy Clyff, the late Miles Davis Patricia Kaas and Youssou N'Dour all appear on the small screen talking about what music means to them. The subliminal advertising message is that TDK is the kind of company that cares about music, so their tapes must be of good quality. Some observers point out that there is an age gap problem in Japan, a generational thing, when it comes to using foreign musicians as CM heroes. "Foreign musicians are not as widely recognizable in Japan as movie stars, especially among the over40 crowd," complains Shitaya. "This limits their use."

But good ideas literally have wings, transcending such generational barriers. This was proved when Dentsu Young & Rubicam decided to recruit black soprano Kathleen Battle. Clad in white, against a background of greenery, she sang magnificently for Super Nikka whisky. Although not very well known in Japan before that campaign, her 30-second performance was enough to send sales of her recordings and Super Nikka soaring. She was even invited back to Japan for several concert appearances.

Both Shitaya and Takenaka agree that the big change over recent years has been the growing use of foreign personalities outside the entertainment industries. Only about half the foreign talent used today are entertainers, for instance down from over 60% in 1988. Most of the new faces are male and female athletes, but many have reputations in other fields. Values in Japan are changing, and these commercials, to some extent, act as a social barometer. "Some companies are now using foreign personalities to communicate corporate messages, or to express fairly serious ideas. Entertainers are not always the best for this," explains Shitaya. Another reason is cost-famous movie stars are now extremely expensive and their prices keep going up. "Advertisers think carefully about the cost/performance relationships now."

The commercials of NTT, Nissan, Nippon Steel, Suntory and KDD reflect a ruffled-brow approach to modern advertising. In 1990, four physicists-including two Nobel prize winners-spoke up for NTT Data Communications, and their own bank accounts. These luminaries included theoretical physicist Stephen Hawkings, thermodynamicist Tlya Prigogine, physicist Chen-ning Yang and space physicist Freeman Dyson. The heavyweight foursome added punch to N'IT's new corporate slogan: "The future will soon be here."

Of the four, the best known here is Hawkings, who is crippled with Gehrig's disease. In the commercial, he sits in his wheelchair and through his voice synthesizer speaks in English about human beings and space. A Japanese narrator explains, "The professor said that human beings want to know everything that is possible to know about space. He said that it can be done."

The heavyweight list also includes futurologists, perhaps betraying a primordial fear here that a disaster is coming that will wipe away Japan's "economic miracle." In 1991, Future Shock and Power Shift author Alvin Toffler appeared for Nissan, explaining (in English) how we, and presumably Nissan, must approach the next century. "Uniformity was yesterday, diversity is tomorrow. Survival in the Power Shift era may require another kind of shift as well-a mind shift," Toffler philosophies. It is interesting that Nissan would choose~the heavyweight, intellectual approach while its archrival for world auto markets, Toyota Motor, would select (with Hakuhodo's coaching) black comedian Eddie Murphy to launch the company's new Celica.

The Tokyu Agency, which produced the corporate ads for Nissan, tends to disclaim any logical connection between Toffler and the product he happens to be hyping. "In corporate advertising we try to let people know how the company thinks or feels. But conveying that message alone is not enough to appeal; we need a character to represent their opinions and, their feelings," explains Makoto Baba, creative director of the Tokyu Agency. In Baba's pre-Toffler campaign for Nissan (1930), old film footage and stills of novelist Ernest Hemingway and boxer Mohammed Ali were montaged in two commercials. Those images were warm, personal and nostalgic-imbued with the strong personalities therein. "We tried to communicate Nissan's changing ideas about making cars," said Baba. "That cars are for individual needs, rather than being mass-produced commodities, and that Nissan aims to create cars just for you, the individual viewer."

Other Japanese advertisers are distancing themselves from the idea of using brash and flamboyant movie stars in their commercials. Much more attention is being paid to those '90's style sensitive personalities, such as Alien actress Sigourney Weaver, who added a new dimension to Nippon Steel Corp. commercials. The Japanese press' least favorite person, Yoko Ono, has talked about her life and communication (with her son) for KDD. Conservationist Lyall Watson has helped project environmental messages for Suntory, an interesting combination indeed.

This new kind of advertising seriousness can be detected in Olympus Optical Co., Ltd.'s 1991 corporate campaign featuring model Karen Kirishima. These new commercials show pictures of her chromosomes and brain cells, which made for a prizewinning campaign. There are obvious limits to the appeal of intelligent actresses and concerned environmentalists. What really captures the collective minds and souls of the group-oriented Japanese are world-class sports, especially Olympic athletes. The 1988 Seoul Olympics built interest in the product pulling power of these athletes. Sports equipment makers worldwide have long been signing champions to endorse their products, often for worldwide contracts in various countries. This market is widening in Japan, as evidenced by the footwear advertising war during and after the recent world-class track meet held in Tokyo in which several world records were set. "Whenever there's an international sports event in Japan, the foreign competitors or their agents visit US" beamed Hakuhodo's Shitaya.

But when it comes to sports in this country, nothing is bigger than golf. That's why a long list of golfing greats earn more money ~naking commercials in Japan than they do swinging clubs on the silver circuits. "Golden Bear" Jack Nicklaus (American Express, Pentax, Asahi Kasei, Nissan, Melbo, Sanyo) has been pawing profits here for 15 years along with his great competitor for CM attention, Arnold ("Yes, I can") Palmer. Other lesser golfers, such as Australia's Greg (The Great White Shark) Norman (Z beer, Australian Tourism, Dunlop, Daikyo), have joined them on the advertising green more recently. The "beer wars" also betray subtle changes occurring in the Japanese national character.

The overuse of foreign talent has sometimes provoked a backlash of Japanese nationalism in television advertising. Take Hakuhodo's not-so-subtle campaign for Asahi Dry Beer in 1988 and 1989, which featured well-known journalist and writer Nobuhiko Ochiai. In those commercials, Ochiai portrayed a self-confident and assertive Japanese businessman in various parts of the world, specifically telling foreigners what to do. The Ochiai nationalistic commercial ilk was added to by Ushio Sumida, a lecturer in applied mathematics at the University of Rochester, and Masaru Tomita, an assistant professor at Carnegie-Mellon University. These images of self-confident Japanese bossing around foreigners went down very well in a Japan increasingly worried about worldwide outbreaks of "Japan bashing."

In the broadest sense, advertising campaigns reflect a society's values and aspirations. Some of these are worrying. A Hakuhodo campaign for Sanraku's "Rolling K" bourbon in 1330 showed a beautiful lady being harassed by horseback riders and, later, lying in the sand. Dubbed "The Rape Campaign," women's protests forced it off the air. Another Dentsu campaign for Kincho insecticide was ended because it was seen as a tasteless parody of the Vietnam War. Most foreign talent campaigns avoid such controversies. But all tend to reflect the Japanese psyche. "For the Japanese, the outside world is a fantasy," says market researcher George Fields, perceptively. "There's both a fascination with it, and a problem relating to it."

The quirks of the Japanese style of advertising are not understood and, in many cases, not appreciated outside this country. That's one reason why most foreign movie stars have clauses in their advertising commercials that forbid the showing of their commercials outside Japan. George Lucas went even further. In his contract for a Dentsu-prepared Matsushita campaign, neither agency nor client were allowed to answer questions about the commercial. In general, American lawyers are quick to pounce on those who leak Japanese ads (featuring American stars) to the United States. When CBS aired Farrah Fawcett's spot for Camellia Diamond, for example, she sued and Hakuhodo was forced to settle our of court, for an undisclosed sum.

Rumors are rife as to how much money movie stars get for making these CMs. Salaries paid compare well with run-of-the-mill movies. A star who can make the cash registers ring in Japan can now expect at least a million dollars an ad campaign. both Mickey Rourke and Arnold Schwarzenegger collected checks worth that much in 1990. The mega-hit Terminator 2 and commercials/ for Nisshin (instant) noodles have made Schwa-chan a household name in Japan. Agencies say Arnold's basic ad rate had been rising quickly to over $1.5 million (in 1991), and will balloon even more this year. So far, the jackpot winner, according to the Mainichi Shimbun, is Eddie Murphy with $3 million for appearing in Hakuhodo's Toyota Celica campaign over 1989 and '90. Asked to confirm this, a Toyota spokesman would only say "No comment!" But not every actor or fashion model who comes along collects a king's ransom in the smoky back room of some Japanese ad agency. Some just get a tacky few hundred thousand dollars. When Hakuhodo sued Rob Lowe for breach of contract in 1990, their suit stated they had paid the actor $450,000 to appear in a Suzuki Cultus campaign but that was before a video of the star's sex antics became public.

Prices are going up quickly: by at least 10% a year since 1988 According to Hakuhodo's Shitaya, fees paid out increased over 20% in 1990 alone, and continued to rise throughout 1991 "We don't know what will happen if this keeps on," said Dentsu's Takenaka. To capture a greater share of the "young" market, advertisers have turned to using young-and-upcoming stars to hawk their products, lending an empathetic feeling. "We like to find performers who are on the way up," says Shitaya. "It's not because they may cost less, it's that the audience appreciates it when they see an advertiser has had the foresight to spot a coming big star." But they better not develop their careers too slowly, or it's off the gravy train.

As in other countries, advertising celebrities must lead exemplary lives. Drugs as well as immorality can put an end to paid campaigns. Olympic runner Ben Johnson's starring role for Kyodo Oil was one such casualty. Since the oil supposedly contained magical ingredients, one Dentsu humorist suggested that Ben Johnson's ad only proved the point, and the campaign should be boosted. But traditional propriety prevailed. When bad news breaks, it is often to the agency's cost. A major agency will always try to ensure that its client suffer no financial loss when things go awry. Hakuhodo's suit against Rob Lowe alleged that the company lost a total $1.5 million due to the actor's impropriety.

Throughout the late '80s, the most common reason for putting movie stars in commercials here was that their recognition value could help products stand out from the rest. But television viewers are inundated with a dozen or more 15-second spots between peak-time programs, and advertisers now obviously need something more than a recognizable face to flag the viewer. "There's no special reason why so many foreigners have been used, except perhaps that they've helped some commercials look good," says Koh Sakata, executive creative director at McCann Erickson Hakuhodo. "Today, I think brands are using foreigners more for relevance. While it still makes sense to use well known talent, it is becoming a question simply of who is the most appropriate the most suited for the message. Whether they are foreign or Japanese is not so important.'' In the '70s, Paul Newman's presence suggested Nissan was making its mark in the auto industry and that the Skyline could fulfill your car-owning dreams.

But those star-gazing days are over. Japanese products have already earned a reputation for quality around the world so it's no longer necessary to have Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino say they're good. Nor do such stars imply their patrons are successful in quite the way they once did. Many of the new foreign faces on Japanese television commercials have never seen their names lit up in neon nor dreamt of appearing in commercials. But one day their telephone rings, as did newspaper columnist Bob Greene's in Chicago. Tokyu Agency's Baba had read Greene's columns and decided he had just the right personality for an NTT corporate campaign. "Hello, Mr. Greene, my name is Baba, I've been reading your columns, and I'd like you to appear in a commercial I'm making for Japan." that's just the way it happens sometimes. What else can a person say except, "Sure. I'll hop on a plane and be right there."

(originally published in the Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan)

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Hottest stars sell it like Beckham

Teen idol Ayaya, K-1's Sapp rank with soccer superstar for selling power in 2003

There was a significant reshuffle last year in the pecking order of the most commercially valuable celebrities, with a lot of new faces scoring high in the 2003 Nikkei TV Commercial Grand Prix Survey jointly conducted by The Nikkei Marketing Journal and Nikkei Research.

Aya Matsuura gets up close to Kirin Beverage's canned tea
Among male celebrities, athletes streaked ahead of the pack, with British superstar soccer player David Beckham rising to first place in the ranking. As for women, teen-age sensation Aya Matsuura captured the top slot.

In the survey, corporate advertising and public relations personnel were asked to select television commercials and celebrities that had the greatest impact on consumers, boosted sales or enhanced the image of the companies.

Questionnaires were sent in November last year to managerial staff in charge of advertising at 500 companies, of which 68% responded. Respondents awarded points to celebrities in different categories.

David Beckham acts sweet with Meiji Seika Kaisha's chocolate

Beckham and K-1 fighter Bob Sapp grabbed the No. 1 and 2 spots with 272 and 229 points respectively, easily defeating their nearest rivals. Takuya Kimura of the pop group SMAP ranked third but only accrued 133 points.

Japan was swamped by "Beckham-mania" in 2003, with the global icon visiting the country in June with his pop star wife Victoria. The Beckham boom, which emerged during the 2002 World Cup soccer tournament, showed no signs of losing steam during 2003.

During very short but lucrative trips to Japan, the Real Madrid hero managed to squeeze in shooting ads for TBC beauty salons operated by Kommy Corp., leading confectionery maker Meiji Seika Kaisha Ltd., and cell-phone service provider Vodafone KK, formerly J-Phone Co. Companies rushed to capitalize on the soccer star's high profile as a fashion leader and sports icon.

Bob Sapp promotes UHA Mikakuto's candies

"His ads were the talk of the town and remarkably effective from a commercial standpoint, which may be worth more than 10 billion yen ($94 million) in terms of value," said a Meiji Seika official.

The U.S.-born fighter Sapp found fame and riches as much for his larger-than-life persona as for his fighting skills. He was ever-present on television, appearing in commercials for Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and confectionery manufacturer UHA Mikakuto Co. among others.

Respondents gave the former American football player top marks for his effective use of humor, which balanced his rather formidable physique.

Godzilla makes a killing

Nanako Matsushima and canine friend share a moment in Sumitomo Life Insurance's TV ad

Among other sportsmen, Shinji Ono, a midfield player of Dutch soccer team Feyenoord Rotterdam, placed fifth and baseball player Hideki Matsui, known affectionately as Godzilla, of the New York Yankees took the ninth spot.

Of show-biz personalities, Kimura stayed in the top three for the eighth consecutive year, failing to hold on to the top spot for the fourth consecutive year. As in previous surveys, he scored well in the categories of charisma as well as actual acting ability.

Despite the momentary fall from the throne, Kimura's future is guaranteed as he gained the second-place slot in the "celebrities who corporations want to use in the future" category. The top spot, however, was grabbed by actor Kenji Sakaguchi, who ranked second a year earlier. He rose to fourth overall from seventh in 2002, scoring high marks for his healthy and stylish image.

Survey respondents also appeared keen to use Masaharu Fukuyama in future ads. The actor took the third spot in this category, jumping from 13th in the previous year and was placed sixth overall.

The battle for exposure was just as heated among women celebrities. Singer Matsuura, also known as Ayaya, took no prisoners, scoring 238 points and clinching the No. 1 spot. The young idol's rise to fame was meteoric in 2003, reflected by her exceptional showing in the survey this year in contrast to the mere 6 points she earned the previous year when she ranked a lowly 40th.

Her big break came when she appeared in an advertisement for Kirin Beverage Corp.'s Gogo-no-Kocha afternoon tea, in which she scatted unaccompanied and danced while drinking tea. The ad was a big hit and her value skyrocketed. In addition to her appeal to the teen-age audience, she scored high for her strong personality.

Ayaya also captured the top spot in the ranking of celebrities whom companies want to use in their advertising in the future. Some analysts refer to her as the "commercial princess."

Actress Nanako Matsushima took second place overall with 214 points, a record high for her, remaining in the top five for the fifth straight year. Prior to this year, her main strength had been her stable and calm public image but 2003 marked a drastic change for the popular actress receiving high marks for her unpredictability as well as acting skills in an unorthodox commercial for Kirin Beverage's Namacha green tea. She also grabbed second place in the ranking of celebrities who corporations want to use for their ads, staying in the top two for the fifth year in a row.

Akiko Yada made a spectacular leap into the third spot from 53rd the previous year. Respondents highly evaluated her sincerity, wholesomeness and friendliness, when she appeared in commercials for Coca-Cola (Japan) Co.'s Georgia canned coffee and the American Family Life Assurance Co. of Columbus (AFLAC) insurance product Ever.

Personalities Misaki Itoh, Kyoko Hasegawa and Yukie Nakama all advanced in 2002 clinching fourth, fifth and sixth place in 2003, respectively. Meanwhile, actress Rei Kikukawa, who occupied the top spot in 2002, slid to ninth place and pop singer Ayumi Hamasaki dropped to sixth from second.

Among female celebrities who companies want to use for their commercials in the future, actress Hitomi Kuroki, who ranked second in 2002, grabbed the third spot last year, scoring high for her versatile acting and her wide appeal.

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Link to Lost in Translation (PDF)

Starry Fees

(Originally published in Korean, in Sisa Journal)

Japan leads the world in the use of famous personalities in TV commercials. In any year some 2,500-3,00 or almost one third of all commercials feature well known personalities. Most of the stars are Japanese, who outnumber the others by 10:1. But the foreign talent list is impressive and attracts a lot of attention. It is easy to see why. A long running Dentsu campaign for Matsushita Electric featured George Lucas. Arnold Schwarzenegger has solds noodles and vitamin drinks, Sylvester Stallone appears regularly in commercials for ham, Madonna has sold TVs, Paul Newman occasionally endorses credit cards, Scotsman Sean Connery promotes Japanese whisky, Jodie Foster drives a Honda, while Bruce Willis stars with mobile phones, isotonic drinks, and Subaru cars, to mention but a handful. Most of the foreign stars appearing in Japanese commercials do not appear in commercials anywhere else. Generally they enforce strict contracts to prevent their commercials ever leaving Japan and, when the occasional commercials is screened on a TV show in the USA, the star involved inevitably sues.

The fees paid to Hollyowood stars compare well with run-of-the-mill movies. A star who can make the cash registers ring in Japan can expect at least a million dollars an ad campaign. Both Mickey Rourke and Arnold Schwarzenegger collected checks worth that much in 1990. The mega-hit Terminator 2 and commercials for Nisshin instant noodles made Schwa-chan, as he is known, a household name in Japan. Agencies say Arnold's basic ad rate rose to over $1.5 million in 1991, and would have ballooned even more in 1992 if Japan's economic bubble had not burst. But the all-time jackpot winner, according to the Mainichi Shimbun, is Eddie Murphy with $3 million for appearing in Hakuhodo's Toyota Celica campaign over 1989 and '90. Asked to confirm this, a Toyota spokesman would only say "No comment!"

But not every actor or fashion model who comes along collects a king's ransom in the smoky back room of some Japanese ad agency. Some just get a tacky few hundred thousand dollars. During the hey days of japan's Bubble economy, prices went up quickly: by 10% -20% a year from 1985. But since recession hit things have stabilized. Not only have prices remained pretty much at the levels set in 1992, there are now fewer mega-buck contracts on offer.

Most, but not all, the highest paid foreigners appearing in Japanese commercials rose to fame via Hollywood. However top singers and musicians like Madonna, Michael Jackson, also can gross over ¥100 million a campaign. So too did the late Formula-1 ace, Ayrton Senna. Golfers, like Greg Norman, and Arnold Palmer may make less money from each commercial, but they are less vulnerable to shifts in fashion and turn up year after year promoting one product or another. Nearly all the foreign talent is Western, but two orientals are among the high earners - Jacky Chan, whose kung-fu movies are very popular in Japan, and John Lone who rose to fame as the Last Emperor.

The prices paid to top talent are a sensitive topic, and usually a closely guarded secret. However the magazine Nikkei Entertainment was able to obtain details of who was paid what in 1992, and agency sources say that these figures are still an accurate guide to market prices.

While the sums paid to foreign stars are usually in US Dollars, the Japanese budgets are naturally set in Yen. The steady rise in the Yen's value over the past several years has enabled foreign talent to rake in ever more $$, while the Yen amounts have increased more slowly.

There's no racial prejudice when it comes to star appeal. Top Japanese talent also receive cheques with a lot of zeroes in them

Big Fees command the headlines, but the way for a star to make money from commercials is seldom to charge the highest possible prices. Among Japanese talent, the biggest earner in 1992 was Miss Rie Miyazawa, a cute and very pretty young lady in her teens, with an astute business manager (her mother). That year, Rie earned a cool ¥780 million from appearing in 12 commercials at around ¥60 million a time. In the USA it would be hard indeed for a star to appear in so many ads, but in Japan the lack of exclusivity is seldom a problem. If a star(let) captures the mood of the times, there's almost no limit to the range of products he or she can endorse.

Many companies use stars, either Japanese or foreign, in their ads. But a handful of companies use them a great deal, and do so consistently year to year: