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Television Commercials: A Respected Art Form in Japan
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12913 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
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5 / 1987 |
2,209 Words |
| Author
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David Tracey
David Tracey is a film critic residing in Japan. |
Japan is probably the only country in the world where it's better to wait until after the television commercials finish to head to the kitchen for a snack. The ads are often more entertaining than the programs.
The Japanese treat advertising as a respected art form. Top copywriters attain celebrity status, command lucrative salaries, and receive invitations to discuss the latest cultural trends on television talk shows. Collections of the year's top magazine and newspaper ads are prominently displayed in the art sections of bookstores. A leading national newspaper carries a weekly column entitled "My Commercial Watching," written by an editor of a well-known magazine that deals exclusively with advertising.
In Western countries advertising generates few fans. Commercial breaks interrupting a favorite television show are at best endured, only rarely appreciated. In contrast, the Japanese tend to like their ads.
It isn't that they have an inherent fondness for being told what to buy - although it may seem that way to a Western visitor. Display ads inundate the country. A ride on any subway is a commercial explosion of color and design, from the wall posters advertising weekly news magazines to the window stickers extolling chocolate bars to the hand straps dangling with plastic messages from apartment-rental consultants. And the high regard for television advertising has little to do with consumers being thankful for helpful shopping hints. Most commercials say nothing about the virtues of the product.
Homogenized Culture
Instead, ads are appreciated for their entertainment value and for their artistic reflections of, and even contributions to, popular culture. Television ads have been credited not only with mirroring the current mood of Japanese society, but they have also been known to help shape the mood.
Decades ago, life in Tokyo was a vastly different social and cultural experience from that in the provinces. With television now beaming the same messages into tiny Hokkaido fishing hamlets that viewers in the capital see, culture in Japan has become homogenized. The latest fashion trends, celebrity gossip, and political sentiments are no longer exclusively for the big city. A television commercial that hits it big - which means it becomes popular enough to be talked about on the street - can even introduce new words into the
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