When I first came to Japan I expected that – seeing as the economic bubble burst in the early 90′s – the trend of Japanese companies paying horrendous sums for past-it Hollywood “talent” to advertise their goods was well and truly over. Oh how very wrong I was…
Tommy Lee Jones is currently the face of Boss Coffee, one of many, many canned coffee companies that provide that essential caffeine-boost for your average nine-to-nine salaryman. The basic premise is an alien being lands in Japan, takes the form of Tommy Lee Jones in order to “blend in” with the locals (err, well…), and attempts to understand the nature of human society by taking random part-time jobs in Tokyo. The end result is a collection of bat-shit insane TV adverts that, thanks to the power of YouTube, you too can now enjoy! Here’s the latest one, in which Tommy takes a job working the night shift in a karaoke bar:
There’s also Meg Ryan currently advertising Nescafe, but sadly with Nestle being a nondescript multinational corporation with an international brand image to uphold, all the commercials are about as amusing as an evening down the pub with Michael Howard.
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Very “Lost in Translation”-like post…