My favorite Japanese CMs

Brought to you by Softbank

*Shakes head

First of all, the Softbank Marketing Department is earning their pay.  The Softbank CMs are unforgettable.  This one is strange enough, yet memorable enough for me to get the song(s) and commercial itself stuck in my head.

The first song is a remake of 中尾ミエ「可愛いベイビー」 Nakao Mie’s song Kawaii Baby which just happens to be a cover of Connie Francis “Pretty Little Baby.” It was a hit single in 1963 and reached no. 1 on the charts.  Not a bad song.  I’m keen to classic songs (^^).  The second song is by つのだ☆ひろ「メリージェーン」Tsunada Hiro’s Mary Jane on My Mind. Not really my kind of song, so that’s all the info I’ll give .  But hey, it’s a classic to some.

Aya Ueto’s Softbank family is at it again and this time they’re advertising the new Apple iPhone.

Aya: We’re back.

Guy: We’re back.

Dad (the dog): uh-oh

Aya: Dad, you’re in a strange position.

Dad: Welcome back.

Aya: Ah!  It’s the iPhone!  Let me see it for a second.

Dad: Ah!

Guy:  What’s this?

Aya: Dad’s reading manga!

Dad: *Hey, put it back (not really sure about this translation)

Aya: Out of nowhere, you went out and bought this.

Dad: It’s alright.  It’s because I wanted it.

phone rings

Aya: Ah! It’s mom.

Mother: Honey, you’re not hiding anything from me, are you?

Dad: No, no.

Mother: You’re a little flustered.

Dad: Why are you saying such a thing?

Mother: Woman’s intuition.

Dad: acha~

Softbank has been making quite a few CMs with the same cast for a while now.  I’ll try to show you some of the more interesting ones later on, but for now it’s imperative that you know who the characters are.

Let me introduce to you the Softbank mobile family.

The older brother in the family is Guy.  He’s the first one introduced in the Softbank commercial explaining the name switch from Vodafone to Softbank.  Here’s the commercial.

Just to sum up the commercial, a bunch of pre-schoolers are talking about Vodafone switching their name to Softbank and that they’re selling a new AQUOS cell phone and how you change the screen positionally horizontally.

Then the little girl turns and asks the guy behind them if he’s listening.  He replies with, “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention,” because he was watching TV.  Actually it was sumo wrestling on his nifty 905SH Aquos LCD cell phone (note this is 2006).  The girl, floored by his statement, runs to him and hugs him saying “This is the type of man I like.”

Seriously.

As for the rest of the family…

The younger sister is played by Aya Ueto.  In the CM, she plays a Softbank mobile representative and a customer asks, “What’s the waito kazoku nijyuyon plan?” (Literally translates to “White Family 24″). Aya explains that it’s a family plan where all calls to family members are free 24 hours a day.  As for the name of the plan, Softbank initially created a “White” plan for individuals where they’d get unlimited calling between 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.  So, Aya comes home saying she’s all tired and her mom asks her to explain the plan to.  Aya, being annoyed, whines about having to talk about her work at home.  Her brother, GUY, says he also wants to know what the plans about.  Aya then points out the fact her brother came home so late.  He then replies with, “I didn’t hear it.”  This is probably a reference to the previous Softbank CM since he also used the same line at the end of that CM.  Aya then replies, “What are you talking about?  That’s why…”  And the father comes in saying that he wants to know what the plan is about too.  The mom says that he doesn’t need to know what the plan is about.  Guy laughs at this statement and get’s yelled at by dad asking him “What’s so funny?”  He replies with an apology.  And if you didn’t noticed, the white dog is the dad.

Again.  Seriously.