I recently wrote an article discussing the popularity of anime in Japan and how it is not quite as popular as many people make it out to be. Through my research, however, I did come across a very interesting aspect of anime that I had not thought of before, the use of anime to advertise products, companies etc.
I should clarify what I mean when I say “Using anime to advertise”. While it is true that many anime are made as advertising for associated merchandise such as manga, light novels, figurines, music CDs etc, the advertising I’m talking about is using anime to advertise products, services etc that are not related to anime.
Makoto Shinkai is well-known these days for his anime films but what you might not know is that he is involved in many different fields of work. One of these is advertising where he has produced five commercials for a company called “Taisei Corporation”, a company that specializes in construction and civil engineering.
Even the famous, world-renowned Studio Ghibli have released commercials. Hayao Miyazaki himself directed four of these commercials with other animators, directors etc directing the other commercials. These commercials have a surprisingly wide variety of topics, ranging from promoting TV channels, convenience stores, food, banks etc.
Going beyond these two famous creators, there are an even wider variety of ads ranging from looking for job applicants, food products, selling cars such as Mercedes Benz and Ford, hair products and even more. These commercials are made by a wide variety of anime companies.
It is also probably worth mentioning product placement. While many anime will create false brand names such as “Fanasonic” (Panasonic) or “Zony” (Sony), some anime manage to convince companies to sponsor them and use their products in the shows. Two examples that come to mind are Freedom, an anime created to celebrate the anniversary of Nissin Cup Noodles and Tiger and Bunny, a (fantastic) series that saw superheroes sponsored by both fictional and real-life companies.
It is really surprising to me how many anime commercials are produced and the sheer variety of products being advertised. I’d almost love for a Western anime distributor to create a compilation collection of anime commercials (which would never happen because of various rights issues). Let me know what your thoughts are on anime commercials and which ones are your favourites.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for all of your needs!