Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The German Sprite TV Commercial That Didn't Make it to the USA...

My good friend in the United States, Mark Davis, just sent a link to to me for a TV commercial for the soft drink Sprite. Mark claims that this is an actual German TV commercial that, of course, didn't make it on American TV. There's no way that this could ever make it on Japanese TV either. I wish one of my readers in Germany could confirm this for me.

But before I show you that one, to warm you up, here is definitely a real German TV commercial for Berlitz English schools, making fun of the German Coast Guard. I thought this one was hilarious:



That one is pretty funny, eh? OK. I hope you are ready for this next one! Please! Do not click this link if you do not have an open mind or if you are around children. It is not safe for work!

GERMAN SPRITE SOFT DRINK TV CM - Do not click this at work or around children!

Of course, there is the classic Dutch TV commercial for learning English that now has over 6 million views (this one isn't safe for work or children either!):


The reason why commercials like this do not make it on TV in Japan has nothing to do with government censors. In Japan, there are no government censors at TV and radio stations. Really! The stations censor themselves. That is why on late night Japanese TV you can see full frontal nudity and more. In the late 1980's my favorite two shows were called, "Tissue Time" (I bet you guys can guess what that was all about) and "the Eleven PM Show" (more nudity there)... Forgive me ladies, I was much younger then!

The funniest thing about the "the Eleven PM Show" was that it started at 11:30 at night. Guess they could have used English lessons too!

Thanks to Mark Davis. See Mark's writings at Strike-the-Root here.

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Keywords:
TV, Japan, TV commercials, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Sprite. German TV commercials, German Coast Guard

5 comments:

Kris said...

I was having an afternoon espresso in a nice little cafe last week full of young Japanese mothers and OL's, when a song very similar to the one from vid two came on over the sound system. I was apparently the only one who noticed.

ThePenguin said...

The Sprite ad is a fake, see e.g. here.

mike in tokyo rogers said...

To ThePenguin!

Thanks! Now that's the kind of truth in reporting we need. Good job! Much appreciation... Now, let me wash this egg off my face!!!

Mike

Mark Davis said...

My bad Mike. I thought it was unbelievable, but funny, so passed it along unchecked. It shows how we provincial Americans will believe almost anything about those decadent Europeans (I'm also flabbergasted that the "Fuck you in the ass" spot was real too). Thanks for checking it out ThePenguin.

I would like to note that this is a great example of how the give and take dialogue of blogs is so superior to print media and the talking head monologues on radio and TV for fact checking. One more reason that the Old Media is dying.

Thanks for the plug too Mike.

Marketing Result said...

It shows how we provincial Americans will believe almost anything about those decadent Europeans.

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