0515

"I'm fruity." - Yebisu Beer

https://www.barrettish.com/log/post/why-japan-has-strange-english-ads

This is an actual ad from Japan, promoting a new brew called “Hanamiyabi”. The reason I chose
this ad was to show an example of Japanese advertisements using the English language. This is very
common in Japan, though sometimes the translations from Japanese to English can result to either
hilarious miscommunications or grammatically wrong phrases to English speakers. So why does
Japan use English in their advertisements, especially since they’re not even an English speaking
country?

The reason behind the use of the English language is that Japan seem to think that they look
“cool”, modern, and are aesthetically pleasing to the eyes. This makes it easy to grab the attention of
the Japanese people. English is also a subject they study. So while they don’t fully comprehend the
English language, they know a some English words which helps them somewhat understand what the
ad is trying to say, and they might not even notice the grammatical errors in the ads. Applying the
weak hypothesis (Linguistic Relativity) of Sapir-Whorf here, the English language influences the way
the consumers view the product. It actually makes the viewers perceive the product as exciting and
foreign. This is why Japan uses English quite often in their advertisements. It is seen as an effective
and interesting marketing tool. I suppose the effect is similar to how some companies in America uses
the French language to make their product seem fancy and exotic. I mean, you might not understand
French but it does give off an impression.

Reference:
Neely, C. (2017, August 30). How to Use English in Japanese Advertising & Promotion. Humble
Bunny. Retrieved July 19, 2022, from https://www.humblebunny.com/how-to-use-english-in-
japanese-advertising-promotion/