Scary Commercials

Its youtube day on the lodge, and I'm following up with extreme japanese commercials.



Asian people love curses. These Kleenex commercials were released in Japan during 1986. The story goes that when the commercial was broadcast it was wayyy too creepy and strange even for the Japanese. (wow...) It was pulled off air following the string of complaints and fears from the public. Then, much like poltergeist or the excorcist, all people involved in the filming of the commercial began developing fatal diseases or befalling strange accidents. Pretty much, an urban legend. Yet, the cultural theme of curses resonates throughout Japans history from the ancient story of Horuichi to modern movie The Ring.

The song was a really popular rave hit back in the day, but its commercial form is weird. This blog indicates the commercial song stems from: "... a really creepy song in a foreign language that when researched, is actually an old German folk song with the words “Die, die, everyone is cursed and will be killed.” "

Now, the oompa loompa looking little kid is actually a representation of the asian netherworld. (Who would let people do that to their baby?) When people die, the afterlife is managed by what we would appropriately call 'ogres' - and based on which realm you are sent to -- out of the thousands of hells in suffering from asian lore, your ogre can either be a devil or an angel. There are hundreds of creatures in shinto myth, if you wonder why anime has surreal monsters - they're not new, they're actually really old and have been scaring the population for centuries. Either way, ogres will have different colored skin and a few horns. The following commercial was remade in an effort to soften the creepiness... it was still creepy.



What the heck does the spiritual realm have to do with Kleenex? but let's return to to the crazy/quirky j-commercials and wrong ones.