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US stars fading in the East
October 3, 2005
Top Hollywood actors can no longer count on a few easy millions for making Japanese ads, writes Bruce Wallace.
BRAD PITT did it. George Clooney and Meg Ryan did it. Bill Murray pretended to do it. And back when he was just a celluloid action hero, Arnold Schwarzenegger was very, very good at doing it.
But none of them does it much these days.
A Hollywood in-house secret, Japanese TV commercials were once talked about with a wink and a shake of the head. Piles of cash were paid to stars willing to peddle anything from whiskey to cigarettes, cars to coffee, instant noodles to cafe latte - as long as nobody told the fans back home. Hey, did you know Dennis Hopper did one for bath products? How much do you figure Leonardo DiCaprio got for that car spot? A million? Three?
Sadly, the days of seeing, say, Harrison Ford guzzling Kirin beer may be over. American stars have not vanished from the Japanese advertising landscape, but their numbers have dropped dramatically since the heyday of the 1990s, when even Mickey Rourke was considered bankable.
"There are much thinner pickings these days," said Al Soiseth, whose japander.com website (as in Western stars "pandering" to Japanese audiences) offers a video compendium of Japanese commercials featuring Western actors. Mr Soiseth says there is a dearth of new ads to add to the archive, which bursts with clips of Hollywood's 1990s A-list.
Advertising industry analysts offer various explanations for the decline. With the irrational exuberance of Japan's bubble economy a distant memory, ad budgets have shrunk to at best half their former size. Hollywood stars expecting to pull in $US3 million ($A3.9 million) for an afternoon's work trying not to garble a simple Japanese phrase are finding few takers.
Japanese advertisers began using Western actors in a big way in the 1960s, when Hollywood represented the cachet of American culture. But some marketing analysts point out that the internet and globalisation have made American pop culture far more accessible to Japanese consumers and, by extension, less exotic.
"The mystique has faded," says Akihiko Sasamoto, who heads the Asian casting division of Hakuhodo, one of Japan's biggest advertising and marketing agencies. "You no longer have this distinction between foreign artists and Japanese artists. So we don't need to spend a big amount of money on a Hollywood star."
Japanese agencies are increasingly turning to more affordable home-grown talent, especially fashion models, who have been found to trigger higher recognition for the brands they push at much lower cost. Home-grown and foreign sports celebrities have also taken a big chunk of the endorsement business.
Other Japanese companies have opted to use animated figures or even real animals. Research in the Tokyo area shows that Que-chan, a chihuahua whose owner is forever taking out loans (at 28 per cent) to buy presents for the beloved dog, has had more impact this year than most two-legged stars. Que-chan's series of humorous ads, including one in which he snowboards down a mountain, have been credited with softening the loan industry's image. And the actual dog has become enough of a celebrity to publish a book of vanity photos and release a compact disc.
Whatever the reason, Hollywood may be facing more than just a short-term dip in its commercial fortunes. Many in Japanese advertising argue that the decreasing use of American stars marks a cultural watershed, in which Japanese audiences increasingly embrace stars and celebrities from Asia.
"The Hollywood brand isn't the best any more, and Hollywood actors aren't effective enough any more," says Yukio Mori, president of Systrat Corp, a marketing and promotion consultancy in Tokyo. "Consumers are in favour of singers or artists who are familiar, rather than foreign movie stars."
The catalyst for the change, almost everyone agrees, has been Japan's raging love affair with Korean culture that took everyone here by surprise two years ago.
The phenomenon was spearheaded by a drama series called Winter Sonata, a tragic love story featuring Bae Yong Joon, a South Korean actor affectionately referred to as Yon-sama in Japan. With his baby face and great teeth, Yon-sama, 33, flutters the hearts of Japanese women in their 30s and older, who tell researchers he rekindles the romantic urges they felt in their youth.
It is a remarkable development in a country where Koreans have long faced discrimination. Koreans born and raised here have felt compelled to adopt Japanese names to fight their way up the entertainment, sports or corporate ladders.
That's not to say the demand for Hollywood actors has completely dried up in Japan. Richard Gere is still popular, pushing everything from condominiums on Tokyo Bay to Dandy House, an exclusive men's spa centre.
But with Hollywood's heyday over, its priceless moments are now consigned to the internet. Out there in the digital equivalent of the remainder bin are clips such as two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster extolling the virtues of an employment agency, and Madonna, dressed like a ninja, pushing a brand of liquor.
Not everyone in Hollywood sees the humour. Lawyers for DiCaprio, Liv Tyler and Meg Ryan have sent letters to Mr Soiseth demanding he take their commercials off japander.com. He acquiesced. "It would be an interesting lawsuit, and I'd love to see it filed," he says. "But not on my wallet."
- Los Angeles Times
Source: http://www.theage.com.au
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