The recent overload of Suntory self-promotion in Bartender prompted a discussion of product placement in anime. Thank you to LiA patron Casey W., who on reading the conversation asked me to put together a top 5 (or 9) list of anime product placements.
I’ll preface this by saying that, as always, this is limited to shows I’ve seen (which is actually a pretty tiny percentage of all of them). Also, this list is in no particular order.
We all know anime is legendary for its creative dodging of copyright laws – “Starducks Coffee”, “WcDonald’s”, et al. But real (paid) product placement has always been a thing in anime, and more so now than ever. The Bartender thing is on another level because Suntory is actually a highly-placed member of the production committee (which doesn’t make it any less distasteful), but that certainly counts too. So let’s start there.
- Bartender: Kami no Glass – Needs no expectation really. Suntory is ponying up the dough to not just plaster their (many) brands throughout the show, but also to hype its Yamazaki Distillery (so popular now there’s a lottery for tickets just to do a tasting and self-guided tour), and bartending competitions.
- MF Ghost – At the risk of being accused of recency bias, I’ll also include MF Ghost, which is absolutely lathered with auto manufacturers and flannel about how cool their cars are.
- Nodama Cantabile – I’ll qualify this by stating that I think Nodama Cantabile is a wonderful series (especially the first season). But the Yamaha presence is really gauche – talk about omnipresent. Something of a similar case to Bartender, as Yamaha was the main sponsor of the series (productions committees weren’t yet the all-powerful entities they are now).
- Code Geass – Not a favorite of mine but one of the most legendary product placement anime ever. Pizza Hut (no stranger to controversy on this front, even in anime) is all over it. And unlike with Suntory or Yamaha where at least it’s thematically consistent, here’s it’s just totally gratuitous and distracting (kind of the opposite of the Nichijou Snickers placement, which actually plays off the incongruity of it to fuel the gag). It’s so bad some of it was edited out when the series was picked up by Netflix.
- Tiger & Bunny – Kind of half and half on the thematic front. The brands are certainly in your face, but they’re on-screen as what they are in the narrative – advertising – since the heroes all have sponsors who get hyped on their costumes. Got worse in the second season.
- Dagashi Kashi – I hesitate to even include this, as it would have been hard to even make the series without talking about the Japanese snacks where are the basis of the premise. But it certainly represents as prominent a case of product placement (charming though it is) as you’re going to see in anime.
- Rebuild of Evangelion – Simply put, it’s product placement ad nausea (pun intended). The brand names are just everywhere.
- Shinkai Makoto – I’d also include Shinkai Makoto in this blockbuster bucket, which is fitting as he’s done many straight-up ads himself. All of Shinkai’s movies starting with Your Name have had a ton of product placement, with McDonald’s being probably the most prominent.
And finally, an honorable mention to Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu. It generally sticks to the parody names of places like McDonald’s and Starbucks (and “Fairy Mart”), but it has a couple of great Dagashi Kashi-style bits. First “This is Puruche!”, one of the funniest sight gags in animanga. Then the Papico bit, which is an important relationship moment for Kyou and Anna.
Casey W
June 4, 2024 at 10:26 pmThis is great. You’re right, the product placement in Shinkai’s films is really over-the-top. Maybe I don’t notice it as much if it’s an ad for a Japanese product that I’m not familiar with, but obviously a company with a global presence (like McDonald’s) is going to benefit the most from a movie that’s a big international hit. Same goes for Dorito’s and Evangelion, I guess.
In my comment on Bartender I mentioned “Super Cub,” which really was made with a lot of participation from Honda, and watching that anime you’d never know that there were any other motorcycle brands in the world. Just like in Nodame, where even in the elegant concert halls of Europe, every piano, trombone, and set of cymbals have the YAMAHA logo prominently displayed.
There’s a “Laid-Back Camp” OVA that’s adapted from a product-placement manga chapter, where Shima Rin rides a three-wheeled Yamaha bike to a hot spring. (The manga was originally published on Yamaha’s website.) However, I think that Yamaha wasn’t involved in the production of the OVA, so the characters never say the name of the brand and (IIRC) you don’t even see the Yamaha logo on the bike. But it still works as product placement, since you couldn’t mistake that three-wheeler for anything made by Honda or another company.
Nadavu
June 4, 2024 at 11:15 pmI miss Nichijou.
Although I have rewatched it twice and also read the manga. Still miss it.
Dinadan
June 5, 2024 at 7:18 amYuru Camp is full of product placement – it’s been fun to watch the prices on eBay spike after the girls acquire some new gear. There was even a special Shima Rin edition of her little fireplace! Nadeshiko’s Coleman Gas Lamp is another one I recall off the top of my head.
The biggest product placement in Yuru Camp, though, is for the campsites themselves. Campsites featured in the show have experienced a surge in popularity as each one has been shown. And if you watch the live action version of Yuru Camp, which is a retelling of the same story as the animated version, you can appreciate how much work the animators put into accurately representing each camp site.
I think the same product placement might also work for the various restaurants and onsens the girls stop at during their camping adventures, but I don’t have any hard data.
Collectr
June 5, 2024 at 8:15 pmI had missed the placements in Nodame Cantabile; in a series set in Japan, I’d expect to see Yamaha pianos. But in Europe (series 2 and 3), you should see Steinway or a famous European maker.
In the deeper past: Coors and Coca Cola are prominent in Watase Seizou’s 1986 Heart Cocktail, Coca Cola is all over Oishii Mamoru’s 1989/90 Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai!, and Budweiser is featured in 1988’s Starship Troopers. How old is the practice in Japan, I wonder?
Nicc
June 6, 2024 at 6:05 amThis is a great topic and considering the in-your-face presentation of Suntory products during a recent episode of “Bartender”. About the only thing missing were the bartenders looking at the camera and saying slogans. Right, product placement is in every kind of media and we’re used to it buy… errr… by now. I can still remember that can of Barbasol from “Jurassic Park”. Ellis from “Die Hard” was doing coke and got a can of Coke later. The Bond movies are full of product placement. We all know what gun he carries.
Your picks pretty much covered all of the famous or infamous examples of product placement in anime. Now, if more shows could handle their product placement like “Wayne’s World” did…
Monymous
June 8, 2024 at 5:06 pmMy favorite is episode 7 of Kannagi. One of the funnier moments in anime when the punchline hits.
Guardian Enzo
June 8, 2024 at 5:59 pm“It’s a Sony”?
Monymous
June 9, 2024 at 1:56 amYes. It as more tweaking Sony hardware fanboys (I was one) than paid product placement, I would guess. Especially since Sony owned the studio (A-1), I wondered about the internal politics of that one.