gTitanich go from here? A remake of gGone with the Windh, perhaps? Or of gWuthering Heightsh? Well, neither actually. For hunk-of-the-moment Leonardo DiCapriofs latest screen appearance is for Japanese eyes only; he is appearing in a commercial for Orico, a Tokyo-based credit-card company.Leo-san
Japanese advertisements
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In return for $4 million, Mr DiCaprio undertook two days work (in Los Angeles). He dresses up as a detective, slurps a bowl of noodles, stops a handbag thief with the adroit use of a nearby apple cart, then turns to the hapless apple-cart owner, credit card in hand, and says: gOrico card, OK?h.
Mr DiCaprio is following a well-trodden path. Sylvester Stallone has been plugging the muscle-building properties of Ito ham sausages for some time (gDelicious,h he says, not particularly fluently), and Jodie Foster is far more gushing about Japanese canned caffElatte than she is about her own future offspring.
These are but the latest in a long parade of high-class western film stars who have happily gone east to promote all manner of low-class products, from pot noodles to cigarettes. They have been encouraged partly by the astronomic fees on offer and partly by the knowledge that the commercials will never be seen outside Japan.
The pioneer was Charles Bronson, the cinematic vigilante who starred in advertisements for a Japanese toiletry company in the 1970s. He was followed soon after by Charliefs Angel Farrah Fawcett who, somewhat less than angelically, successfully sued one of Japanfs largest advertising agencies for allowing a Japanese film of her promoting Caellia diamonds to get into the hands of CBS.
Since then, stars have felt comfortably cocooned in Japanese adland. Bruce Willis has been persuaded to bill (handsomely) and coo over jewellery, Harrison Ford over Japanese beer, Ringo Starr over apple juice, and Daniel Day-Lewis over face cream. The formula is pretty standard: a series of rapid shots of the star are set to a mix of pop music and capped off by a simple tag line.
The technique was enshrined in Japanese advertising practice by the huge success of Madonnafs 1987 ad for a new VCR from Mitsubishi. She reinvigorated the companyfs stodgy image at the same time as she doubled its market share. The local advertising industry learnt to appreciate the power of an instantly recognisable star in a market where advertising spots last for a mere 15 seconds as opposed to the Westfs standard 30 seconds.
The Hollywood star has become such a staple of the industry that the first question on every advertising executivefs lips when planning a campaign is not, gWhatfs the message?h but gWho do we get?h. Given the current weak state of the Japanese economy, the work-to-pay ratio for these stars may soon change. But for the moment they are more than happy to use their global reputation to do a little local hamming.
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Updated April 28, 1998