Ice Cream Campaign Creates New Age of Celebrities?
Posted in: marketing, MARKETING IDEAS, Today's ChiliCG magic, a pop idol conspiracy, fan outrage and an ice cream have combined together in one of the most interesting and bizarre marketing campaigns we have come across in a long while. What on the surface looks like a simple interactive advertising campaign, a website from Japanese confectionary brand Glico named “Oshimen Maker,” allows users to create their own AKB48 member (a massively popular comercial female idol group) using CG technology and facial parts from existing AKB48 members. However the campaign has sparked uproar in Japan’s Otaku population as it has clarified growing suspicions that one of the AKB48 members, Eguchi Aimi, was in fact merely an artificial CG character, and if that wasn’t bizarre enough the character itself is created from the facial features of the six more favored existing members!
On its own the web campaign for the new ice cream product, “Aisu no Mi” (Ice Cream Seed), uses clever maneuvering of the combination of one of Japan’s massive idol groups, AKB 48, and its growing popularity which has spread far beyond its otaku fan base. Oshimen Maker uses the eyes, hairstyle, body style, eyebrows, noses, and mouths of the user’s most favored members to create their own unique idol to be submitted online and ranked among the others, almost a crowd sourced pop idol. They can also be shared on Facebook or Twitter, and sent to friends, showing off the digital “perfect idol” that they have just created. The digital members can also be downloaded as a desktop background, as well as being used as profile pictures or avatars.
A number of fans had previously commented that Aimi was in fact “too good to be true,” and her facial expressions were unreal. The launch of the web campaign seems to have backed up the theories that the member was indeed a fictitious creation and has sparked cries of protest and anger. Many fans blamed Glico, after realizing that the name Aimi was a simple abbreviation of their product [Ai]su no [Mi]. If Glico were indeed the mastermind behind the actual Aimi character from the start this is a amazing exercise in branding, where the company have managed to create a “pop idol” out of a product rather than the usual reverse where pop-stars become brands after reaching a certain level of notoriety. It is noticeable that in todays world of marketing on a huge scale, manufactured girl groups can be brands before they are even bands, however this is the first time we have come across an actual product being the pop idol “herself”, and the fact that it was a mystery for so long takes the teaser campaign idea to new levels.
This site has even brought upon feelings of “competition,” with fans claiming that they can create an even “cuter” Eguchi Aimi than their counterparts. It is amusing to see a “race” has developed as otakus rush to their computers to design their ultimate “Aimi” (they call it) and submit it to the ranking candidate list. The brand name has now become synonymous with creating the idea of idol perfection, not sure if this relates to the ice cream product so much but certainly spreads the companies name. As we can see below, not every creation leans towards perfection, and some may be far from it.
While this campaign is intriguing in its own unique way, and despite the voices of opposition, it is fascinating to see the significant support for a non-existent digital idol, as seen in the growing fan base for Hatsune Miku, one of the first CG animated characters to perform at concerts. Taking it one step further than plastic surgery, it brings to us the question of whether this type of marketing concept that hints at Japan moving towards a new era of celebrities. This coupled with personifying products to the point that they are part of real world groups, unaware that fans are actually infatuated with a product builds up communities around the brand on a whole new scale.
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