Watching t.v. recently I’ve noticed that there were some adverts that kept appearing that didn’t actually appear to be advertising anything in particular. The number of times these adverts have been on has increased dramatically since the earthquake and tsunami so I thought maybe it was a charity collecting for money, but after a bit of googling it turns out that AC Japan is the advertising council of Japan which is responsible for broadcasting public service announcements on the behalf of various non-profit organisations or government agencies.
After the tsunami various companies withdrew their adverts from television, obviously not wanting to be associated with the events being shown on the news or wanting to be seen as inconsiderate to the thousands killed and the hundreds of thousands who are now homeless. To fill up the extra broadcasting time AC Japan has been showing adverts which feature various celebrities or public figures giving messages about Japan’s strength as a country and how to encourage harmony (a very important concept in Japan) by helping out those around you.
There are various others which you can probably find by clicking on the related videos.
This one, aimed at children, encourages you to use the correct greetings when meeting people each day, what to say before eating, when coming home etc.
This link is a page about how this particular video has become an Internet meme and explains it a bit more.
The reason I noticed these was firstly because they have been shown almost non-stop since the earthquake, the cartoon so much so that it became has become an Internet meme, but also because I don’t recall ever having seen similar adverts on UK television across all channels simply encouraging people to help each other and reinforcing the nations identity.
