The White Stripes love j-pop
Here’s the coca-cola commercial for which The White Stripes made a jingle:
Now, here’s japanese pop diva Yuki’s video for her song Sentimental journey :
Am i paranoid or what ?
The thing is, an acquaintance of mine is actually in the Yuki video. She’s playing one of the Yukis. I would never have seen it otherwise since Yuki is probably the most annoying voice in j-pop today. And boy, do i hate j-pop.
Anyway, if you want to know more about Yuki, here’s her website. She’s one of the most popular singer in Japan where she fills the role of the slightly deranged girl. That prompts everyone here to compare her with Bjork.
Anyway, i don’t really know if the guys at the Coca-cola Company really ripped her off or if the concept was already used before the Yuki video. It might even be the same director for all i know.
I can’t possibly believe that a guy, at Coca-cola or at the super duper advertising company they contracted to do the spot, could be dumb enough to think this would go unnoticed if he ripped the concept of his next commercial on a music video of one of the biggest pop star in Japan.
Naah, no way.
UPDATE : It’s the same director, see the comments for more info.
May 4th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Nice One! This is such a rip off!
By the way, a very good friend of a very good friend’s qualify as your “friend”, rather than “acquaintance” I think.
The ad agency who did this really suck on a creative point of view, and the White Stripes song is probably their worst yet.
Excellent post, as always.
May 8th, 2006 at 3:25 am
Apparently, the director Nagi Noda just copied her own self, as she directed both. This is of course not an excuse, but shows how uninspired ad agencies can be.
Interesting detail, Nagi Noda is also the creator of Hanpanda, the half-panda half-something-else animals (http://www.hanpanda.com).
May 8th, 2006 at 3:30 am
Um, its often that ideas are recycled in this manner. If you do some digging, you’ll probably find that the same people were involved in both projects. I seem to remember the same shit happened with a mac commercial that was a “direct ripoff” of a video. Turned out the director was the same guy on both.
May 8th, 2006 at 11:05 am
This is quite common. A band comes out with a music video and an advertising agency hires the director to do a commercial with a similar style. It isn’t meant to be some sort of secret. There was controversy recently when Apple hired the director from the Postal Service’s ‘Such Great Heights’ to do an ad and the band took it as an offense.
May 8th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Yappari.
It’s not so much that they’re uninspired, it’s just that nobody saw the yuki video besides the japanese audience, so they don’t want to let a nice concept go to waste.
Anyway, a lot of conceptual artists base their career on a single idea declined ad-lib, but they’re artists whatcha gonna do ?