Jon Siegel / ジョン米岡

Jon Siegel is an art director living in Tokyo, Japan.

May 17, 2009

American beef, as seen by Americans outside Japan

I’ve been meaning to put this one online for a while now. I mean, where am I supposed to start with this? Just look at it. This was an ad that ran in Tokyo trains for a while about a year ago as part of a campaign to promote U.S. beef. Just who is this ad targeting?

Immediately notice the size of the meat. Five pieces of meat of that size and quality as depicted in the photo would cost you the equivalent of a 7 day package vacation to Bali for two. For that matter, simply finding meat of that size, from any farmed animal, at any Japanese super market, is simply unheard of. Even more questionable, the children are eating their oversized steaks with chopsticks while holding small bowls of rice. Had the marketing team any clue about Japanese eating habits, they would have known that the amount of rice served is proportionate with the meal it’s served with. Thus, with dishes that size, these children should be eating their rice from buckets rather than the tiny dishes they hold.

Dig further and you’ll notice the children live on what appears to be a golf course. They’re also enjoying a salad with large vegetables and fruits. A bowl of fruit that size, in Japan, for each child, could also cost as much as each of those steaks. As well, again, notice the children are using chopsticks to eat their giant steaks, then notice the place settings for the uncut steaks placed across from them. There are forks and knives beside those plates. Are those plates intended for their non-chopstick using Western captors/parents? Where are their bowls of rice? I love this ad, I can’t stop finding inconsistencies in it. Can you spot any more false assumptions about Japanese culture?*

*Hint! Japanese people don’t cut their carrots like that!

Viewing 3 Comments

Paul- 8 months ago 1 point
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This advert is an absolute train wreck! It took me a while to notice this, but someone has taken a stock photo of two children and photo-shopped in almost everything else! The kid in the middle is lit differently and out of place, no-one has actually touched their Western style meals because they're not actually there, and the ridiculous golf background has been put in to conceal the original background. What a raw deal the graphic designer must've had to construct this image from several different photos.

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http://www.paulheatondesign.co.uk/

Jon Siegel 8 months ago 1 point
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If America's trying to push beef in Japan, as it does everywhere else, it could do a better job inspiring the market with better advertising. The Japanese are never going to dump shabu shabu or tonkatsu anytime soon, so at least they could place the product in a familiar scene where they can accurately show the cost/value of the product(for example, finer cuts of beef at lower prices for a good tasting budget yakiniku night).

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1 /people/jonsiegel/ /people/jonsiegel/following/ http://www.sasuraisamurai.com/wordpress jonsiegel

Orchid64 9 months ago 1 point
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Thank goodness that Japan always has its marketing abroad spot on and perfectly culturally oriented, unlike those barbaric Americans! :-p

I think the whole point is to give the idea that you can experience more bountiful meals if you buy American...which isn't actually wrong since American produce and meat is a lot cheaper than Japanese stuff. While the ad is certainly imperfect, I doubt the Japanese would notice much about it besides how big the food looks.

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