The Science of Absolute Territory

The premise behind this new advertising scheme is taking advantage of something known as zettai ryouiki or “absolute territory”. Zettai ryouiki is the exposed area of skin between the hem of a woman’s shorts or skirt and their leg wear. Often, a woman’s zettai ryouiki will garner more attention than any cleavage she might be sporting.

Since zettai ryouiki is defined by the length of the stockings, socks, or boots she’s wearing (I’m hooked and I can’t stop staring), Japan has developed a ranking system to define the grade of zettai ryouiki on a girl. It’s as obvious to me as it is to anyone that only grades A and B are to be considered true zettai ryouiki.

Zettai ryouiki focuses on young and innocent sexuality and is most often worn by girls who are somewhat aware of their attractiveness but not so much that they’re going over the top with it. Fun fact: many tsundere characters find themselves sporting zettai ryouiki. Had you noticed?

The Advertising

Of course someone would find a way to monetize this leggy phenomenon. A company calling themselves Absolute Territory has started to hire girls to sport ads on their zettai ryouiki, earning up to $125 a day. Over 1,300 girls are already participating in this new marketing fad and the only requirements apart from being a female (sorry Koichi) is that you must be over 18, and have at least 20 social media contacts.

The girls have to wear the ad for at least eight hours during the day, taking pictures and uploading them to social media periodically to prove they’re keeping to their end of the bargain. Since men’s eyes would naturally wander to the girl’s milky white thighs anyway, Absolute Territory is taking advantage of this by placing an ad there.

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Everybody from RocketNews24 to Green Day has been hopping on this advertising bandwagon. Not everyone, however, is keen on the idea. The Okinawa Convention and Visitors Bureau along with their prefectural government put the kibosh on any plans to make use of this new advertising stating that placing ads on the thighs of young women to advertise Okinawa is not in line with the prefecture’s brand image.

When they were still toying around with the idea, the offices received numerous complaints bashing the sexy plan as “undignified” and “not an appropriate use of taxpayer money”.

Since this sex advertising would be funded with government money taken from the people, it’s obvious that some would be outraged at the thought. Fortunately the government decided to kill the plan before it went into action. Even though they knew the campaign would definitely be effective in getting the attention of young people and males, they didn’t want to do anything to harm the overall image of Okinawa.

So tell me, what are your thoughts on this new advertising trend? Is it too sexy for use? Does it ruin the image of the people and companies who use it for advertising? Do you think this trend would ever catch on in your home country? Let us know in the comments!

(Although I’m sure people outside of the US who have seen the berries and cream or “I feel great” commercials have probably wondered WTF is up with American advertising.)

But what’s the story behind these ads? As much as I’d love to imagine that these bizarre ads just occur naturally in Japan, it takes a lot of hard work and creativity to crank out these wacky ads.

While the real advertising world isn’t quite as glamorous as Mad Men depicts (although Japanese ad execs probably drink just as much), it’s still a powerful, competitive industry with high stakes.

Just take a look at Dentsu, Japan’s most powerful advertising company. Dentsu is huge. It’s the biggest advertising company in the world, raking in over $4 billion last year, and controlling almost a third of advertising in Japan.

Some classic Dentsu advertising

But Dentsu doesn’t just make the goofy, wacky kind of commercials that are known the world over. The agency has an incredible breadth of talent that ranges from the strange to the serious. Just take a look at this bullet train ad that won Dentsu several awards:

In the aftermath of the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami, Dentsu’s feel-good commercial with its message of unity really struck a chord in Japan and abroad. (You can read more in the post we wrote last year.)

Even ex-Dentsu have gone on to do incredible things. Dentsu alumni Hiroshi Sasaki went on to create the Soft Bank “Shirato family” and Tommy Lee Jones Boss coffee commercials (both of which I love).

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And, thankfully, these wacky Japanese ads might just be coming to your country not too far in the future. A lot of Japanese ad agencies are looking to expand overseas, and have put their money where their mouths are. Last year, Dentsu spent $5 billion dollars to buy a British ad agency.

Between that and SoftBank’s recent acquisition of American telecom company Sprint, I can only hope that I’ll be able to see the whole Shirato family here in the US.

There are some other parallels between the Japanese advertising industry and Mad Men — let’s just say that Dentsu has been behind things much more dubious than uplifting commercials about trains. The agency found itself ensnared in scandal a few years back when it was discovered that the Japanese government had been holding town hall meetings with paid actors planted in the audiences.

This town hall scandal helped bring down the then-Japanese prime minister. Who collaborated with the government in orchestrating these meetings? None other than Dentsu.

So while Dentsu, along with other Japanese ad agencies, make incredible commercials, billboards, magazine ads, and all sorts of promotional materials, remember that they might be a bit more Don Draper than you would like.

Read More: Otosan, Japan’s top dog, The lion’s Dentsu

In Japan, You Eat Chicken On Christmas

Ask almost any Japanese person (and I have asked many) why they eat KFC on Christmas. Almost every one of them will answer “isn’t that what you do?” (or, at the very least, they’ll ask “you don’t eat chicken, too?”). Apparently, over the years the colonel has been tricking Japanese people into thinking that the rest of the world does Christmas with KFC, so obviously the cool thing to do is follow suit.

Of course (unless I’m missing something here) a KFC Christmas almost anywhere else would be quite a sad affair. Even eating chicken on Christmas seems a bit weird to me, though I’m sure there are some who roast a chicken instead of a goose, or turkey, or ham, or whatever it is people normally make.

How Did This Happen?

Well, first of all, the meaning of Christmas is pretty lost in Japan. It’s almost entirely a commercial holiday (did I say almost? I meant completely). We have made up 100% commercial holidays too, though I gotta say, Japan knocks us out of the water in this category. Christmas in Japan essentially feels like a “how much can you spend on your girlfriend today?” kind of holiday. There’s a lot of pressure to buy expensive gifts (even rankings on TV showing what gifts are the best, with a very heavy focus on price), spend money on hotels, and really just spend a lot of money in between, too.

With all this focus on the commercial, it was probably super easy for KFC to slip in and take the show. All it took, I’m sure, was a few years of advertising campaigns around Christmas. I mean, c’mon, who can possibly resist Japanese commercials? I know I can’t.

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Oh, and did I mention that Colonel Sanders kind of looks like Santa? He totally does.

Other Weird Japanese Christmas “Traditions”

KFC isn’t the only thing that makes Christmas in Japan unique. There are plenty of other things that could be considered “weird,” and we wrote about a good number of them a couple of years ago right here on Tofugu. But, just to make things simple, here’s a list of weird things, along with a few new ones.

• Along with their chicken, a lot of people eat “Christmas Cake,” also because “Americans do it.” Maybe it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure people don’t eat Christmas Cake (though I guess it makes sense, after all, we are supposedly celebrating a birthday, right?).
• A lot of Japanese people get it right (and know that Christmas is to celebrate Jesus’ birthday)… but there are a good number of people who think it’s to celebrate Santa’s birthday too. I’d give it a 60% Jesus, 20% don’t know, and 20% Santa’s birthday ratio, from the asking I’ve done.
• Christmas Eve is lovey-lovey date night. It’s kind of like Valentines in a way. Guys are supposed to spend uber amounts of money on girls, and possibly rent a hotel, because that’s what guys do. Expect to see lots of TV focusing on expensive things to buy and expensive hotel rooms to rent around this time.
• Christmas Eve is a night of miracles. Thank TV for this. Usually these miracles are romance related, though.
• Although this has changed much, and the “age at which women should get married” has also become less “strict,” unmarried girls who are older than 25 (because the 25th is Christmas) are called “Christmas Cakes,” because in order to sell a Christmas Cake after Christmas, they have to be put at big discounts (i.e., you’re supposed to get married before hitting 25). Like I said, this is and has changed quite a bit.

Merry Christmas From Tofugu, Too!

Oh, and Merry Christmas to everyone out there, too! Hope you have a great holiday, no matter what you celebrate (or don’t celebrate). Festivus for the Restivus?

Merry Christmas! Go do something nice for someone.