Japanese print ads have always been more interesting to me than I remember American ads, though the reason probably says more about me than it does about the quality of the ads, namely that:

• I don’t watch TV: Many of these ads count on you having seen the TV version, so like an inside joke, they crumble into an innocuous or nonsensical collage of message and image when you haven’t seen it. My failure to recognize all but the most well known Japanese personalities doesn’t help things either.
• They’re not interested in me: Foreigners are simply too small a demographic for most advertisers to be interested in. The products they push and the arguments they use were created to manipulate a whole set of common beliefs, fears, tastes that I often don’t share.

In addition to keeping my discretionary spending on hair gel and trashy weeklies down, this total communication breakdown has made it easier to pass the time on my commute, deciphering and dissecting these ads. But one gaijin can only take it so far, so I’ve decided to share a few cases here, starting with this series from Mos Burger.

The New Mos

This campaign is running on the Tokyo Metro trains to promote new recipes on Mos Burger’s core products, the Mos Burger and the Teriyaki Burger.

The train ads are as simple as you can get: a product shot, 3 lines of copy, product name, and the company logo and tagline, but let’s try to pull this apart (click on the image to follow along):

The Teriyaki Ad (top)

• Introduced in 1973: In a country where some businesses last 1,400 years, longetivity counts a lot. From line 1, MOS wants you to know that this comparative blip of a burger has history, it’s been tested by the public, deemed trustworthy, and it’s still here.
• First in the world: Many westerners and even Japanese people characterize Japanese innovation as more refinement than invention. I’m not sure if a teriyaki burger is going to bust this myth, but it at least shows that being first means something here.
• self-confident work (自信作): Like the world’s best pancakes at countless diners across the U.S., many Japanese restaurants have one item they stand behind more than any other, the one you should try before anything else.
• 新. (new): This little beauty mark on the first character of the title really puzzled me at first, but Eiko explained that that little mark elevates the character from a description to a product name. When you consider the stream of products boasting newness, the distinction makes sense. This is not just a new teriyaki burger, it is the new teriyaki burger.

The Mos Burger ad (bottom)

• The Taste of Japan (日本の味): Later in the ad, Mos takes it a step further, stating “this burger matches the tastes of the modern Japanese person more than any other.” (Note: Apologies for the bad crop). This is one of those messages that shows up all the time, not only in ads, but in conversation: Japanese people have unique tastes, and foreign ideas often need to be reworked in order to meet these tastes, preferably by other Japanese people. To many foreigners, this belief rings with ethnocentrism and elitism, unfortunately justified by the occasional assertion that Japanese tastes are not only different, but more refined and sensitive.
• I’m in the mood for Mos today (今日、モス気分): This slogan seems modeled after the recent string of MacDonalds slogans: the vapid “I’m lovin’ it” in the US and “Got 100 yen? Let’s go to Mac” in Japan. All these slogans have two common qualities that are very 21st century. First, they are written from the point of view of the customer, Time Magazine’s “You”. Secondly, they are all in the moment. They’re about today, the money in your pocket and how you are feeling right now.

Though somewhat at odds with where these MOS ads started, with history, perseverence and reputation, this tagline is perhaps what fast food does best even if it’s for the worst. It places a solution within reach, to answer an urge from within, right now.