Turning Japanese

With the widespread influence of media on a global scale thanks to technological updates from long-distance calling to the internet, nations and peoples across the world have been pulled closer together than ever before without ever taking an actual step towards one another. What has, in turn, developed is a concept called globalization, or the increase in the opportunity for communication, the movement of people and ideas, and an exchange of both material and intellectual goods on a large scale. This flow of influence between populations has had its effects on the cultures involved, a process that means unification to some and wide-spread conformity to others.

One of the by-products of this globalization process is what Professor Straubhaar defined as hybridization, or the interaction or mixing of previously separate cultures with the progression of time. As peoples share information, ideas, and products, one of the eventual outcomes is the bringing together of cultural groups that would otherwise — thanks to geographical distance, predominantly — be quite distinctly disconnected. The result is an increased awareness of other cultures, customs, and thought processes, as well as even the adoption of some of these ideas into other populations.

While the United States of America is overwhelmingly considered to be the dominant spreader of the media, and thus ideals, of its culture, a prime example can be seen in an alternative situation: the flow of the concept of Japanese-style game shows into American television.

The Japanese game shows have a tendency to operate on extremes; entertainers, celebrities, and everyday people alike have the chance to appear on one and participate in a rather exaggerated series of tasks for prizes or simply the entertainment of an audience. "Takeshi's Castle," a Japanese classic that appeared on televisions across the nation from the mid- to late '80s, is perhaps one of the most famous examples of this. In the show, participants compete in a series of often absurd physical challenges, from "Super Mario"-reminiscent block-jumping to climbing a hill clad in protective gear while "guards" roll giant foam acorns and other nuts as obstacles down towards the approaching people. A failure in one of these events often meant falling into mud or water. The appeal of the show for many laid in watching the often humorous and slapstick outcomes of taking on the outrageous challenges.

A look at the original "Takeshi's Castle," as aired in Japan under the title "風雲！たけし城" or "Fuun! Takeshi-jo," can be seen below:

Over time, thanks to a combination of the internet and television, "Takeshi's Castle" made its way to the United States. In the early 2000s, Spike TV aired over 80 episodes of the show, adding humorous dubs to both spoof the series and introduce it to American audiences. The result was a trend in Japanese-inspired game shows. Most recently, shows like MTV's "Silent Library" and ABC's "Wipeout" have provided not a spoof on these game shows, but actually their own versions of them featuring American contestants participating in events strongly influenced and inspired by the original shows of Japanese origin. Some of them ("Wipeout") have even gone so far to do so that they have come under legal attack from the stations that originally aired the shows (Japan's Tokyo Broadcasting System) for allegedly copying some of the series completely.

"Mystery Pistachio"

As online media such as YouTube has exploded in popularity, entirely new kinds of celebrity have sprung forth through the form of vloggers, directors, and more. People who would otherwise be ordinary users uploading videos onto the website have come into fame, with loyal viewers, or subscribers, from across the globe climbing into even the millions for some of the more popular names. The pervasiveness of the media has grown with this, something I realized in further detail when I came across this video by MysteryGuitarMan, a musician who has become known for his inventive (and somewhat eccentric) music videos:

While advertising has entered into the online media scene with 30-second clips that play before and occasionally between streaming videos such as those from popular internet television source Hulu, I found this advertisement a particularly powerful example of how deeply embedded it can become. Even as audiences move away from other forms of media where advertising has made its mark, the industry doesn't fail to follow as made clear in this relatively new variety of product placement. By turning over the creation of the actual advertisement to an entertainer with a large following, as the number one subscribed director on YouTube, a catchy, amusing internet clip is created with a promotion for the Wonderful Pistachios product incorporated thoroughly into the mix.

As detailed in Professor Straubhaar's lecture, techniques to include product placement and the use of celebrity make this advertisement-in-disguise extremely powerful and effective, as a YouTube celebrity with an incredible following of 1, 104,780 subscribers (as of 8:20 on this Sunday night) creates a music video centered around the pistachio product, and is even still eating them during the vlog that follows the music portion.

The appeal of an advertisement like this can be found in the fact that, as the advertising industry discovered long ago, people want to become more like the celebrities they admire, to include purchasing the same things that they do. By seeing this video of MysteryGuitarMan eating Wonderful Pistachios, viewers are more likely to buy the product themselves, simply because he makes them "look good," or even something as simple as drawing there attention to it so that they're more likely to recognize and purchase some pistachios of their own during their next trip to the grocery store.

Additionally, a link to the Mystery Pistachio website in the information bar below the video directs users to even more celebrity endorsements, featuring famous faces from Snooki to Chad Ochocinco reveling in what is presented to be an extremely delicious pistachio snack.