Further information about the surreal Japanese Pocky commercial I posted about earlier. Evidently the Japanese text above the video claims that the women are singing in French, which I can sort of hear. The subtitles translate (roughly) to:
Pocky are very exciting,
Decorated Pocky tastes especially like cake.
It tastes very good. That’s how it tastes.
Decorated Pocky, Decorated Pocky,
Let me tell you, it tastes like strawberry.
Decorated Pocky tastes especially like cake.
It tastes very good, it tastes very good.
Decorated Pocky, Decorated Pocky
(thanks to Amano at Tilted Forum Project)
These all have an edge of anime-inspired weirdness, especially the last one.
-What’s she saying?- She’s saying “yawarakai”, or “flexible!”
Hot Women in Red love Pocky!
First Kiss
Clumsy!
Some sort of game–What IS this?
Heart-throb
Related links:
“What kind of Pocky are you?” quiz. I’m Strawberry Pocky.
Order your pocky here at Asian Food Grocer.com.
On March 17th, 2005 Boing Boing said:
Sex sells Pocky snax
An assortment of surreal, bizarre and wonderful Japanese ads for a surreal, bizarre and wonderful Japanese snack called Pocky. Dan Ray says, “In this blog post, I’ve rounded them several favorites, along with some translations, descriptions, and rel…
On March 17th, 2005 Jenn said:
In the “What’s she saying?” clip, she’s repeating “yawarakai” which means “soft” or “flexible.”
In the “First Kiss” clip, the mother says “oyatsu yo!” which basically means “snacktime!”
In the “Some sort of game” clip, I have no idea what the game is but the girl draws a straw that says “ouyama” which means “king”, hence the crown.
In all the clips, the mantra seems to be “anata mo watashi mo Pocky!” which roughly translates to “you and I both Pocky!”. I guess I would translate the feeling of the phrase as “everyone loves Pocky!”
On March 17th, 2005 Steven Miller said:
The game has to be the Osama Game. I’m quoting a Salon article
Osama — meaning king — is written on a disposable chopstick and others are numbered from one upwards. Lots are drawn and one person becomes king, ordering the others to perform dares. Played after drinking heavily, the object is to embarrass, and to introduce a little smut into the proceedings.
Sounds fun. The King gives an order, without knowing who will execute them, thus the command: “Nr. 2 kiss Nr. 3″ may result in two guys getting intimate.
On March 17th, 2005 Doug said:
Nice collection of links. Made me want to shout Let’s Pocky! Anyway, the girl in What’s she’s saying is Soft (yawarakai) and the game in What Is this is called “o-sama game”in which whoever draws the o-sama card (or Pocky) gets to give commands that other players have to obey. That’s why she has a devious and satisfied expression. It’s overtly sexual because couples play this as a kind of foreplay.
On March 17th, 2005 Qlog said:
Japanese Pocky Commercials
Dan’s Horrendous Waste of Bandwidth � Further Japanese Pocky Comercials: “Can you see that I am serious?” I like those Pocky chocolate sticks. You can get them from Ranch 99 or Mitsuwa….
On March 17th, 2005 eloh said:
these have an oddly american feel to them, in terms of production style and the whole integrated campaign (same music clip, aggressive slogan repetition). despite the obviously non-american subject matter.
maybe i need to watch more japanese commercials.
On March 17th, 2005 The Girl Who Ate Everything said:
pocky
If you’ve never heard of the Japanese chocolate-dipped cookie stick snack Pocky before then you live in a ditch. Or something. I had never seen Pocky commercials in my life until now. Dans Horrendous Waste of Bandwidth links to some…
On March 17th, 2005 flux » Pocky Talkies said:
[...] nearly as incomprehensible as these: What the… Huh? Wah hunh? Snagged from Dan’s Horrendous Waste of Bandwidth [...]
On March 17th, 2005 dev said:
The “first kiss” ad’s title is “遂にファーストキッス” which I beleive mean “Finally (our/my) first kiss”.
As for the “柔らかい” (”yawarakai”- “soft”) ad, I think she may be alternating between saying that and saying “やら若い” (”yarawakai” - roughly, “possibly young”). The only reason I bring this possibility up is because the title of of the ad is actually “やらわかい” (”yarawakai”), so I reran it, listening more carefully to what she said.
The name the ad gives to the game is “Raise/Rouse the King Game” (盛り上がる王様ゲーム).
The heart throb ad’s title is “キュートに！告白” or “cute confession”.
On March 17th, 2005 GuyInJapan said:
It should be noted that the women involved here happen to be very famous comediennes who are well known for being kind of rude, earthy, and certainly not what anyone would consider “sexy”. Which is what makes the commercial funny.
On March 17th, 2005 len said:
I’m was struck by another thing in the commercial… they have a special Men’s Pocky? huh?
On March 17th, 2005 dylan said:
isnt this inspired by onegai teacher .. the anime? or is this another weird japanese in-joke that has been going for years.. ?
On March 17th, 2005 Dan’s Horrendous Waste of Bandwidth » Big traffic day! said:
[...] y and hot Japanese girls! Since 1:30 this afternoon, when Xeni put up my submission, the Pocky Post has seen over 7500 page views. That’s over 1000 per hour. [...]
On March 17th, 2005 RichPav said:
Ha. I’m at work right now sitting next to the French guy who wrote the tune in that commercial. He’s quite surprised at all the attention it’s getting.
On March 17th, 2005 Herro Flom Japan » Blog Archive » Pocky on Boing Boing said:
[...] Pocky on Boing Boing Today’s Boing Boing has a link to a post on another blog about the Pocky commercial that was in French. My coworker is th [...]
On March 17th, 2005 Carridine said:
Folks, what’s the name of the AD AGENCY doing these?
This is really interesting, from the ’suggestive/NLP’
point, if no other! (see yarawakai/yawarakai, above)
On March 17th, 2005 åץ˥塼 said:
ܤΥݥåCMǤ͵!?
DAN’sۤΤФݿͥΥݥåCMȤեäʤפʤȤϴۤǸäƤãͤǤ롣ʡݥåΣãͤƤ롣ޤˤ¿(?)…
On March 17th, 2005 Mazoola said:
Here by way of BoingBoing. The mangled French lyrics to the Decorer Pocky song are as follows:
Ce qui fait cracquer les filles.
C’est une decoration comme un gateau.
METCHA C’est si bon YANKE
UMAI YANKE
Pocky Decorer Pocky Decorer …
Qu’en disent les jolies fraises.
Qu’en disent les jolies fraises.
METCHA C’est si bon YANKE
KWAII YANKE
Pocky Decorer Pocky Decorer …
http://www.glico.co.jp/pocky/cm/song_d.htm
One can wander forever on the glico.co.jp website. I’m particularly fond of the ads for some sort of pretzel-like creature
http://www.ezaki-glico.net/pretz/tvcm/index.html
http://www.ezaki-glico.net/pretz/tvcm/index2004.html
and the little rocker-chick playing “Smoke on the Water” (the second entry from 2003)
http://www.ezaki-glico.net/pretz/tvcm/index2002.html
On March 17th, 2005 The Woogus blog said:
Pocky!
Some weird Japanese Pocky commercials, thanks to Dan’s Horrendous Waste of Bandwidth…
I especially like the heart-throb one.
Speaking of cultural differences, and how cultural references and translations get mixed up… Engrish.com is my favo…
On March 18th, 2005 narF said:
Hi there, I would like to bring my talent in French (it’s my native language) to all. For what I can hear, the subtitles are not translating correctly.
«Ce qui fait craquer les filles
C’est une collation comme un gâteau
[???]
Pocky décoré, Pocky décoré
Candies (très jolies fraises)?
C’est une collation comme un gâteau
[???]
Pocky décoré, Pocky décoré,
Pocky décoré, Pocky décoré.»
(Appologies for the missing parts : their French is horrible!)
Which means:
“What makes crack the girls (crack like in “falling in love” or like the sound)
It’s a snack like a cake
[???]
Decorated Pocky, decorated Pocky
Candies (very pretty strawberries)?
It’s a collation like a cake
[???]
decorated Pochy, decorated Pochy,
decorated Pochy, decorated Pochy.”
That’s it!
narF
On March 18th, 2005 Shinobu said:
They’re Japanese famous commedian, they called “othello”.
Othello web site…
http://www.shochikugeino.co.jp/profile/owarai/othello1.html
http://www.nahomilk.com/
On March 18th, 2005 Cuatricromia.com » Blog Archive » Pocky decorer said:
[...] ted Pocky via [Danray.net] This entry was posted on [...]
On March 18th, 2005 Justine said:
The Pocky sold in Japan right now has a “collect them all” promotion of stickers made from stills of past Pocky commercials.
On March 18th, 2005 Dan said:
Sec sells Boing Boing as well!
On March 18th, 2005 Kenji said:
http://www.glico.co.jp/pocky/cm/mov/pocky_cm2.mov and http://www.glico.co.jp/pocky/cm/mov/pocky_cm5.mov are my faves.
save em to your hard drive.
On March 18th, 2005 travis said:
Stick snacks are very popular in Japan. Men’s pocky are supposedly dark chocolate. Pretz are usually savory sticks, as opposed to pocky’s almost always being chocalate, with flavors like roasted corn and tomato (although there are some sweet flavors as well). There is also another one called toppo that are pretzel stick snacks which are hollow inside and filled with chocolate. I almost never eat them anymore despite living here for several years, although I was fascinated with them before I lived here.
On March 20th, 2005 lola said:
Just wanted to explain. Men’s pocky is actually the dark chocolate version, and the box actaully says “for the intelligent connoisseur”. Interesting angle on marketing chocolate biscuit sticks…
On March 22nd, 2005 小便小僧のつぶやきfromベルギー said:
みかど：MIKADO
MIKADOとは。 日本で有名なあれ！！ フランス、ドイツ、イタリア、スペイン、ベルギーなどヨーロッパ各国で販売されている。 そう、ポッキーのヨーロッパブランドです。 そういえば、…
On March 27th, 2005 Morris Levy said:
HEY! This is an AWESOME blog! The thing you are missing though, is the usage of Pocky from a certain anime, called “Please Teacher”, or sometimes known as “Onegai Teacher”, and they use Pocky in EVERY SINGLE EPISODE!! Watch it if you love your POCKY! I love my POCKY!!!
On April 11th, 2005 SLACKERCRACKER » Blog Archive » Pocky TVC said:
[...] An assortment of surreal and wonderful Japanese ads for a Japanese snack called Pocky. http://www.danray.net/2005/03/17/further-japanese-pocky-commercials [...]
On June 7th, 2005 Anonymous said:
what i want is the tabs for the awesome guitar in the videos! But i ahve loved pocky for a looooooooooooong time and consider myself a self-taught pocky expert (if i were to be so bold) ^__^
On June 8th, 2005 Further Japanese Pocky Comercials: “Can you see that I am serious?” said:
Further Japanese Pocky Comercials: “Can you see that I am serious?”
Further Japanese Pocky…
On June 17th, 2005 Jan Ringedal said:
MP3 Download File Sharing
Further Japanese Pocky…
On June 22nd, 2005 peekay said:
im actually eating a men’s pocky right now…..
i just got a sticker…..any one know if there are actually 40 stickers to collect? cuz thats a lot of pocky to scarf down….
any one else collect pocky?
On August 11th, 2005 Editor, The J.E.I. said:
You might enjoy our recent Pocky taste test and gallery of 200 types…
http://ephemeral-inspiration.blogspot.com/2005/08/food-of-gods-pocky-pretz-pretenders.html
The Journal of Ephemeral Inspiration
http://ephemeral-inspiration.blogspot.com
On October 10th, 2005 tom said:
The Pocky sold in Japan right now has a “collect them all” promotion of stickers made from stills of past Pocky commercials.
On November 21st, 2005 Helen said:
I can’t help be surprised every time get it all promotion method succeeds. It’s been so long ago whan it first appeared.
On December 14th, 2005 pox said:
stig
On December 14th, 2005 ampoki said:
each and everything of the cm’s are different and unique and originol and distinkt. the’yre all very funny! making me laugh ha ha ha! everytime always! even though i play it agen agan, million more times i dont get tired and bord with them clips. i like aal of them and each one of every of them! both the 4 girl are all prettiest. even although they make funny of themselves to make audience laughing, they all prettie still! so a lot prettie nice beautyfull! I LOVESS POCKYYYY!!!!!! POCKY ROCK! POcKY ROCK NATION! RULE WORLD! WAH! WAH! WAH! i want the pocky to do more of this to go funnyer and funnyer! get chiaki kuriayma (”qil bil”gogoo yuvary(?) i not sure with name,speling,age,birth,none. i down know. im very much sorry because i down know. is just i wanto see her with both 4 of the pocky girl! all of girl! beautyful and faunny! i howp i howp!!!!!!!!!!!!! i wish for that to happend
On January 1st, 2006 Kazuo and Noriko said:
We are all love to see pocky comercials! we are love red in girl pokcy eating! we watch eat double pocky in one mouth at once adn like. we eat pocky all day whenever it not be good to eat. teacher teacher bang desk to see us eat pocky. we sang all to much ANATA MO WATASHI MO POCKY. is if it happend hard too much be, we like more pokcy comercials like to see alot of. i like eat chocolate pocky most. i like eat crsushed almomd eat best. we fantasie to sea aki maeda be at under with both 4 pocky girls. if it not be to hard we see pocky comercial more and a lot of more see alot more. we never see enough. we wish see more alot like. we too like pretz comercial. we dont eat digestive. bye bye talk soonaga in later.
On February 27th, 2006 Peanut69Nut said:
ANATA MO WATASHI MO POCKY! Yay Pocky! I love the taste of Pocky! I want the two bwanna tai no Pocky girls to dance on my sofa Pocky! I like the HUGE strawberry Pocky and the special because I like those Pocky yum yum yum Pocky Pocky Pa! ANATA MO WATASHI MO POCKY! Hurray for POCKY! Pocky makes me want to do naughty things and eat Pocky with naughty people like that girl from the Pocky bus stop. ANATA MO WATASHI MO POCKY!
On February 27th, 2006 Dan’s Horrendous Waste of Bandwidth » Big in China said:
[...] Further Japanese Pocky Comercials: "Can you see that I am serious?" - 41 commentsFor some reason, this is REALLY satisfying… - 10 commentsEpisode III Verdict: Not Bad - 9 commentsNotebook M-F’ing Maximizer - 8 commentsMy Adventures in WiFi - 5 commentsWe Are (considering maybe the possibility of perhaps) Moving! - 5 commentsFireworks Truck! - 4 commentsReal Hybrid Animals - 3 commentsMusic Meme - 3 commentsSong Search by Tapping - Search for music by tapping the rhythm of the song’s melody. - 3 comments [...]
On February 27th, 2008 Surendran said:
That’s good information.
Thanks folks.