This is an ad that Domino’s Pizza made to promote a new phone app for customers in Japan. I am not sure if it is really “television-related,” because (a) I do not live in Japan, so I don’t know if it aired on television there, and (b) it is over two minutes long, which is really, really long for a television commercial. To be honest, it’s probably part of some sort of web-based marketing campaign. But I really want to talk about it, so let’s just pretend that this airs on Japanese television, like, all the time.
With that out of the way, here are my favorite parts of this commercial:
– The fact that Domino’s let a high-ranking, middle-aged, white executive named Scott (who looks and sounds a little like David Koechner) star in a two-minute long Japanese ad about a high-tech phone app featuring an anime character named Hatsune Miku. (DOMINO’S MARKETING GUYS: Hey, who can we have star in this commercial? We need to appeal to Japanese kids. SCOTT: Yeah, I’ll just do it. DOMINO’S MARKETING GUYS: Okay, great. Let’s grab lunch.)
– Scott’s pronunciation of “Hatsune Miku,” which he says five (5) times in the first 30 seconds. Remember that video of former Orange County Eyewitness News reporter Gustavo Almodovar? It’s kind of like that, except you can tell someone has drilled this pronunciation into his head so he doesn’t screw it up, and you can see the terror in his eyes every time he says it.
– See the banner picture? That is an ACTUAL PIZZA BOX.
– The weird editing. Cut to Scott’s face. Cut to Scott’s hands. Profile view of Scott’s face. Cut to his tie. QUICK, BACK TO HIS FACE. NOW A SHOT OF SCOTT POSING WITH HATSUNE MIKU. EXTREME CLOSE-UP OF SCOTT’S EYES. FACE. HANDS. PIZZA. TIE. FACE. WIDE SHOT.
– The part at the 0:40 mark where he just starts naming Japanese people who work for Domino’s.
– The things he does with his hands from from 1:36-1:40. So awkward. So painful. I must keep watching.
– The fact that this app even exists. That’s what made all the other things on this list possible. Domino’s Pizza, a company that makes pizza, made an app for phones that allows users to create songs that an anime character will sing back to them. That actually happened. We live in amazing times.
(Via Gawker)
