Eye Juice

13 Sep 2005 Category: Graphics, Japan, Products

PingMag spotted a bizarre poster at the train station the other day. I think living in a country where media (and especially advertising) is not in your native language, you really start to appreciate the clarity of non-textual messages and it becomes easier to spot when a designer is relying too much on “explaining” their visual material with text.

Lets take a look at this poster. There are three images of a girl. The center girl - who looks like she was either bitten by a radioactive panda, or has been punched cleanly in the face twice - is flanked on either side by her two identical sisters who are wearing some kind of funky 60s era half-lennon sunglasses. Each picture has a hulking great big bottle of something blackcurrant-flavoured attached to it.

Now, any reasonable man would be confused and afraid at this point. However if you read the text, you will see that this poster is for a new kind of drink that can magically cure eye-bags.

Given the amount of time that you spend looking at posters stuck on walls in train stations, was this message clear to me? No, I would have just thought “hmm, hippie panda blackcurrant drink” and continued walking swiftly to the exit. But that’s because I’m a foreigner.

Why should that matter? Well because in Japan, there is now a growing sub-phenomenon of health-related drinks purported to cure all manner of minor ailments in a decidedly non-medically-proven way. Drinks to make you prettier, drinks to give you good skin, drinks to help digestion, the list goes on. To the majority of Japanese consumers, this type of product and their health-related properties are well-known, so to introduce another one of these products in the form of an advert follows a very simple set of design rules:

a) show the problem

b) show the product

Which is exactly what the panda poster does. Head-scratchingly ambiguous to foreigners or tourists, but clear - or at least clearer - to Japanese consumers.

So in summary: please make a drink that turns me into a panda, you’ve whet my appetite.

Imagine all the panda-a-as...living for todayyyy yaheeeoooahh
Imagine all the panda-a-as...living for todayyyy yaheeeoooahh
Mmm eye juice
Mmm eye juice

Another gratuitous picture
Another gratuitous picture
pic with no caption

25 Comments

  1. WOW!! These are some cool and weird ads. I didn’t really read the articles yet but i looked at this one and another. These are cool!

    Posted by: Chloe on February 14th, 2007 at 7:44 am

  2. 哈哈, though now i am curious as to what they are advertising. Unlike you, I wouldn’t have thought of a panda though…panda’s are black alla round the eye. She reminds me of a football player. But still…I can’t help but think it’s an ointment of some sort to help reduce bags under your eyes. That would’ve been my first guess anyways~

    Posted by: 小莎莎 on July 20th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

  3. thanks for subject. it is very intersting post

    Posted by: nakliyat on February 28th, 2008 at 3:24 am

  4. Excellent. As an aspiring illustrator this article was really inspirational. Thank you Ping Mag. I love your site. :)

    Posted by: bursa evden eve nakliyat on March 31st, 2009 at 3:27 pm

  5. For the anime illeterate this means his first design is taken from nausicaa

    Posted by: konteyner on December 24th, 2010 at 7:24 am

  6. Having the big honor to be so close to a Japanese traditional dancer, I took the chance to go backstage for PingMag and take a few pictures

    Posted by: perdeci on December 24th, 2010 at 2:39 pm

  7. maurers

    Posted by: maurers on February 21st, 2011 at 11:59 pm

  8. the karga amk ya ne filmdi super demi izleyin tavsiye ederim

    Posted by: goruntulu sohbet on August 6th, 2011 at 2:23 am

  9. Having the big honor to be so close to a Japanese traditional dancer, I took the chance to go backstage for PingMag and take a few pictures

    Posted by: กระดาษ on August 22nd, 2011 at 11:44 am

  10. Having the big honor to be so close to a Japanese traditional dancer, I took the chance to go backstage for PingMag and take a few pictures

    Posted by: hmmtube on September 3rd, 2011 at 8:28 pm

  11. My spouse and I mainly needed to submit fast hello there as well as thank you just for this extremely helpful notification. I ran across myself personally searching with the world wide web for quite a few form of goodletter. like that, or even your website. Which will coveredwhat let me Appreciate it.

    Posted by: north face outlet store on November 3rd, 2011 at 9:55 am

  12. Hey, I like your website, it is a wonderful site! I’m looking for some informations about sports betting to put in my page.

    Posted by: christian louboutin on November 10th, 2011 at 1:23 pm

  13. Hi, amazing eye juice.

    Posted by: black friday xbox 360 on November 11th, 2011 at 10:20 pm

  14. Excellent. As an aspiring illustrator this article was really inspirational. Thank you Ping Mag. I love your site. :)

    Posted by: zaza on November 12th, 2011 at 12:15 am

  15. Excellent. As an aspiring illustrator this article was really inspirational. Thank you Ping Mag. I love your site. :)

    Posted by: Black Friday on November 12th, 2011 at 12:16 am

  16. Hey, I like your website, it is a wonderful

    Posted by: black friday tv dvd combo on November 12th, 2011 at 6:37 pm

  17. Hi, amazing eye juice.

    Posted by: black friday Tv And Dvd Combo on November 12th, 2011 at 6:37 pm

  18. It good article. Black Friday 5D

    Posted by: Black Friday 5D on November 12th, 2011 at 10:59 pm

  19. Nice for me Black Friday Canon 5D

    Posted by: Black Friday Canon 5D on November 12th, 2011 at 10:59 pm

  20. good idea

    Posted by: Black friday deals ipod touch 2011 on November 13th, 2011 at 9:21 am

  21. Great eye juice.
    I love this blog.
    ipod touch black friday 2011

    Posted by: ipod touch black friday 2011 on November 15th, 2011 at 7:36 pm

  22. amazing eye juice.

    Posted by: black friday Cyber Monday sales on November 25th, 2011 at 9:29 am

  23. Black Friday Canon Pixma Best Buy Online Printer For Black Friday Sale 2011

    Posted by: Black Friday Canon Pixma on November 25th, 2011 at 5:16 pm

  24. Christmas ornaments are decorations (usually made of glass, metal, wood or ceramics) that are used to festoon a Christmas tree. Ornaments take many different forms, from a simple round ball to highly artistic designs. Ornaments are almost always reused year after year, rather than purchased annually, and family collections often contain a combination of commercially produced ornaments and decorations created by family members. Such collections are often passed on and augmented from generation to generation.

    Posted by: uggs christmas ornament on December 6th, 2011 at 4:28 pm

  25. Thanks for the article and good techniqueto share.

    Posted by: jokoman on December 16th, 2011 at 5:51 pm

  • Share and Enjoy:
  • del.icio.us
  • digg
  • Fark
  • NewsVine
  • RawSugar
  • Reddit
  • YahooMyWeb
Previously on PingMag