Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Do American Actors Show Up In Japanese Commercials?
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Animechic420
 Posts: 1727 Location: A Cave Filled With Riches |
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Money. 
Or maybe charity. 
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Shay Guy
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This is literally not the question being asked? Even the answer only mentions it as an afterthought. |
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MarshalBanana
 Posts: 5317 |
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I saw the other day with Bill Bailey https://youtu.be/9hd_OuKosxg?t=9m32s
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DeTroyes
 Posts: 520 |
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The Soft Bank White Family ads with Tommy Lee Jones as the family's maid are probably my favorite in this vein. Well, pretty much all the White Family ads are hilariously surreal, but those in particular were pretty fun.
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Compelled to Reply
 Posts: 358 |
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A lot of the reason has to do with how successful a foreign movie is in Japan, which can elevate actors to familiarity. You also had celebrities successfully courted as spokespeople for their brand. For example, Paul Newman was like a god in the 1980s when he raced Datsun/Nissan cars.
We actually had a lot of celebrities as spokespeople, one of the most prolific being Ronald Reagan for General Electric, that sponsored a TV show he hosted. Sponsorships stayed common in Japan, which is why you see anime promotions for everything from food to the Olympics. |
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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Arnold Schwarzenegger did a butt load apparently throughout the years that are some of the most hilarious and weird commercials I've ever seen with him trying to speak Japanese with his thick Austrian accent and laughing a lot in them. Literally Japan had him on call a lot apparently.
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vision33r
Posts: 90 |
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Movie stars are too expensive and doesn't help the brand and most likely hurt it in the US because people are too PC.
For some Americans if they see Kim Kardashian posing for a house hold item commercial, they may get offended and complain to the company. Nobody in Japan is that PC to complain to about being offended by a TV commercial. Asia in general have crazy commercials because people are more relaxed about entertainment then being political about what's on TV. |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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TIAN (This, In a Nutshell): Usually, it might be arranged to be a one-day shoot, timed during an international press junket while the actor was already in Tokyo for an American movie opening-- And since the commercials might involve the actor saying one line or none (in English), it's not taxing work requiring a deep performance. In the US, celebrities market their face, so an actor like Dustin Hoffman or Morgan Freeman can voiceover a commercial, but if he makes an appearance, the fee goes up. |
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Lemonchest
Posts: 1771 |
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Celebrities do endorsement deals & ads in the US all the time. If there's a difference, it's that US companies seem willing to pay huge amounts of money for in effect the exclusive image rights of A list celebrities, while having your face plastered next to any old tat is seen as cheapening your brand value (though in these instagram & twitter days, it seems anything goes). That & most US agencies operate on a % basis, so negotiating bigger deals nets them more money with less hassle than trying to manage hundreds of small change endorsements. If you're not seeing these ads, it might be because you're not watching a youtube channel dedicated to them.
Japanese agencies still seem to mostly operate on a system where all but the biggest celebrities are effectively salaried staff, so it's in their interest to farm out even big talent to anyone who'll pay, to maximize their ROI. |
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jdnation
Posts: 1998 |
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I think that's changing a lot in the west.
Before movie stars were glamorous and a world set apart from everyone else. Today, it seems the trend is to be more approachable and to be relatable just like everyone else - the nice guy/gal. Not the snobby unapproachable elites of old. Nowadays it's not odd to see big stars doing silly stuff on Jimmy Kimmel or Jimmy Fallon or the Carpool Karaoke with James Corden. Even now you can see big movie stars doing TV series whereas once it was considered a promotion to go from a TV show star to a movie star and not backwards. As for commercials, it's probably the case more of expense rather then actors not wanting to do them. Some do afford them for car and perfume and fashion and beauty and hair product commercials. But for the most part, top tier actors etc. are making enough money that they don't need to bother with taking on commercials, and usually when they do, it's for charity. There's no necessity to take on the extra work. I'm suspecting that some western actors will do a Japanese ad simply because of the perception of the silliness of Japanese ads and wanted to be a part of the fun. Plus if they are treated well while working in Japan, it's almost like a vacation. In Japan, I suppose given the closer working relationships between product companies and movie/anime development committees, getting their actors/actresses to support a brand or marketing campaign on the side is far easier and considered part of the job. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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The sight of Tommy Lee Jones quaffing that coffee can makes the latter seem positively Lilliputian. Can there be more than two gulps in a typical can of Boss?
I regret to inform you that the actor in question has been reduced to a disembodied, robotic head in the humdrum world of British advertising. |
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Gina Szanboti
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That's what I was thinking. And American celebrities are in ads all the time. Jennifer Garner and Samuel L. Jackson for Capital One, Rob Lowe, Mark Wahlberg (also for ATT with James Marsden), Josh Brolin and Patrick Stewart for DirecTV, Kevin Spacy for E-Trade and Lenscrafters, Matthew McConaughey for Lincoln Motor Co., Jeff Goldblum for apartments.com, William Shatner for everything, and that's just off the top of my head. And even more of them do voice-overs for ads. However, they do tend to retain a bit of their dignity while doing so, unlike some of their Japanese counterparts. |
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DLH112
Posts: 115 |
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typo
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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Have a feeling E-Trade's not going to touch Kevin Spacy with a ten foot pole now. |
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mangamuscle
Posts: 2658 Location: Mexico |
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That one is easy, for the exact same reason they appear on mexican commercials.
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