http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbqjv1_dan-rei-suntory-kinmugi_shortfilms
Look at the commercial above. It’s a beer commercial in Japan.The woman was waiting for the return of her husband making his dinner. There was a big controversy about it. Men basically liked this commercial. On the other hand, most women didn’t like it as this commercial reminds viewers of the traditional image that wives stay at home all the day waiting for the return of their husbands.
In Japan, there was a tradition that men worked outside the house and women worked inside it (doing housework). But, the situation has been changing over the last 30 years. More and more women work with men and a greater number of men help their wives with housework, though the gender gap still exists as shown in the Global Gender Gap Report by World Economic Forum (Japan’s rank is 101).
The commercial above obviously describes Japanese traditional wives. Of course, the company knew about it. But, why did the company make it?
One answer is that the target is men, especially 30~50 year old men. These men may tend more to like traditional women. In fact, 30~50 year old men bought this product the most.
However, there is another possible answer. The company intended to cause a controversy and increase the customer’s interests by doing so. Actually, this commercial became very popular and I heard a lot of people talked about this beer.
Therefore, in terms of marketing, this commercial succeeded in providing the ideal image to the target audience and increased sales dramatically.
However, in terms of ethics, it involves the risk that it could lower women’s social position.
I don’t know whether it is right that the company draws customer’s attention by intending to cause a controversy. We have to continue to think about this problem.
sources:
http://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2012