Comments on: Read Different: Apple Ads in Japan

By: Oscar's Knowledge Base

Oscar's Knowledge Base — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 07:04:10 +0000

Most common fonts, 웹 가독성...

I found your entry interesting thus I've added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)...

By: richard

richard — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:30:55 +0000

Thanks for posting this – its great to see! I didn’t like the ad when I watched it first time, but after I read your commentary, the comments (and watched the awful mitchell and webb UK versions) and came back to it, I liked it more. Its just taking a simple poke at PCs being for boring business suited class salarymen, and I think its gonna work really well. Steve Jobs has got a really good point about taste, and the Japanese are totally going to watch this ad and, if they’re kids, or semi-casual designer types they’re gonna laugh at “Wakku” and if they’re boring business suited types (many of whom are pitfully insecure I might add) then they’re gonna want to buy a mac – to make themselves seem cooler to themselves and their friends or family.

Really, you can’t fault apple’s strategy, particularly as it seems they’ve already won the battle in the court of public opinion. The only thing that would be more effective than this is just explaining the difference to housewives in simple terms, especially with regard to viruses and spyware – but that wouldn’t be cool now would it? Wives definitely prefer macs. I think that’s a given. They’re cleaner, prettier and neater. No contest.

The font idea is nice though, I hope to see that one day!

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:41:31 +0000

What a fantastic article! Very in depth, I really enjoyed reading it. Though I too found the Mac text examples to be blurry, I sure think it's stylish and something I could get used to. (Note, I haven't had any difficulties with text seeming blurry on the macs I've used so perhaps it is just the screen shots or the example.) shrug

By: poorsod

poorsod — Sat, 31 Mar 2007 13:59:46 +0000

Here in the UK they’ve got a very similar set of ads to those in the US.

They don’t work. Here’s why:

http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/

In the adverts they used the excellent Mitchell and Webb, a comedy duo who made a storm with the critics with Peep Show in (I think) 2001. http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/P/peep_show/index.html

The advertising team evidently watched Peep Show and saw how well Mitchell and Webb suited the characters: David Mitchell as the round, middle-class, geeky Mark and Robert Webb as the thin, trendy, musician Jeremy (‘Jez’)

The thing is, they watched Peep Show but didn’t understand it. One of the brilliant parts of the comedy is the fact that you can hear each character’s internal monologue. It turns out the pair share the same insecurities and come up with the same self-centred plots. That is, Jeremy’s chic demeanour is just a front.

The Mac adverts employ much the same characterisation of the two, without getting the subtext. The message to the consumer is ‘Macs think they’re better than they are’.

By: Win

Win — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 08:17:07 +0000

I am actually somewhat surprised that they ran with that add in general. I feel that its considered in very poor taste by Japanese people to compare things directly. Also living in Japan I have rarely seen such calm collected adds. Finally I think that the last thing that went unrecognized is that the “pc” is supposed to be really annoying, and when he uses the phrase “anata mo pasocon desu yo ne?” he is being some what strange; Japanese males don’t use “desu yo” often and many feel that it is effeminate; the ‘ne’ adds to the apparent weakness. Still I am shocked that they didn’t just put a really pretty girl using a computer with some sort of overly cute cartoon character and giant shiny kanji like 90% of the other adds I am used to.

By: adam

adam — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:52:59 +0000

See the point you are missing here is that the ads were created the way they were because it is against the law to have competitive advertising. You cannot downplay another product. if you say something good about your product comparing it to another, you have to follow it up by saying something good about the other as well. Hence why the Japanese characters look similar. It simply would be illegal to run the western versions in japan.

By: wizardishungry/blog » Link Dump: God is laying across your bed, talking backwards

Fri, 19 Jan 2007 05:55:00 +0000

[...] Found this image of Razor Ramon Hard Gay as the Mac in the Apple ads; actual Japanese “I’m a Mac” ads also funny. [...]

By: MACNOTES.DE

MACNOTES.DE — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:02:24 +0000

[...] Mai Am 2. Mai startete Apple die “Get a Mac”-Kampagne mit den ersten sechs Spots im amerikanischen Fernsehen. Die menschelnden Zwiegespräche zwischen Mac und PC erlangten vor allem in den USA schnell Kultstatus. Mittlerweile gibt es insgesamt 18 Spots, die unter anderem auch eingedeutscht wurden und für den japanischen Markt sogar eigens Kultur-synchronisiert wurden. Am 14. Mai geht Macnotes online – übrigens mit einem Beitrag zum seit Jahr und Tag herbeigerüchteten iPhone. Nur zwei Tage später stellt Apple das MacBook vor und wir können als einer der ersten von unseren Eindrücken berichten. Auch wenn einige Geräte anfänglich noch unter den üblichen Kinderkrankheiten litten – allen voran eine seltsame Anfälligkeit des weissen Plastiks für Verfärbungen, die einigen Unmut unter den Erstkäufern auslöste – wurde das MacBook schnell zum Bestseller und ist wohl ohne Zweifel der erfolgreichste Mac des Jahres. Das MacBook markierte zudem einen Meilenstein, den man Apple vor einiger Zeit kaum zugetraut hätte: Zum ersten Mal konnte Apple ein Consumer-Notebook präsentieren, das nicht nur mehr Leistung bietet, sondern auch deutlich günstiger ist als vergleichbare PC-Pendants. [...]

By: Kilian

Kilian — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:08:17 +0000

There's another problem, the Japanese fonts on Windows have almost no leading set as a default, so most texts on Windows are far less readable as Oliver is showing here: just imagine the Text above for Windows with the space between the lines being near zero, they characters almost touch each other.

At least that's what you get in all text editors and when looking at Web sites that don't adjust line-width heavily with CSS.

Working with Japanese on Windows is a major pain and it is simply incomprehensible for me why Japanese even put up with it.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 13:40:44 +0000

That last video is hilarious. Great post here; Thanks