Hasta La Gadget!

It’s not often that fabric softener is made to appeal specifically to single women who want romance, but here we are.

“Which Romeo would you want to fall in love with?” is the latest advertisement slogan for a new Aroma Rich Juliette campaign that, quite frankly, made us fall out of our chairs in the office. The campaign for the aromatic fabric softener was running for about a month aimed at Japanese women who fantasize of being “Juliette” for a night and spending it with the Romeo of their choice. The Romeos, in this case, being mostly foreign guys with dreams of being famous in Japan.

These charming fellows were competing for the romantic title of The Next Romeo. It’s interesting that, among them all, the only Japanese guy in the bunch came in first!

Each one of the candidates did his best romantic performance in a short video presentation where he introduced himself, his skills, passions and dreams, while the final message was to convince the audience to choose him and become their Romeo for one night. This was the most surreal part of the video where he shows his affection – supposedly to Juliette- while cradling the Aroma Rich fabric softener bottle in his arms.

It was a hard decision, I must say. Choosing between French Vincent who whispers romantic French words to Juliette, the tall British model who divides his time with volunteer work in Tohoku…Or rather the sweet Hawaiian surfer who wants to take the next Juliette to round-the- world trip… hmmm…

Kasey Cummings, the surfer, has a blog if you want to check it out. The line when he introduces himself in the video is mindblowing in any language: “My name is Kasey. Please remember, it’s ‘Kasey’ like ‘keshi-gomu.’”

For those wondering, ‘keshi-gomu’ is Japanese for eraser, but you don’t have to snap your fingers and point when you say it.

The campaign is nicely wrapped in the fairy tale, dreamy atmosphere, piano and violin background music and French titles- something that seemingly appeals to the woman wanting romance and a Western-style courtship and wedding.

The prize, as promised, was to make this dream come true, for only one night. Two winning Juliettes will be escorted by the chosen Romeo to a production of the real ‘Romeo and Juliette’ and a romantic dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant. Runners up will be forced to live out their dreams through free bottles of fabric softener.

The chosen first place Romeo, surprisingly enough, was the only Japanese- Onuki San from Kanagawa prefecture, who humbly introduced himself with a short, but convincing, performance, as a dancer, with a simple dream of becoming a man of his words. His fun and playful final message represents probably the most of what is the ideal Romeo in Japanese women’s eyes. After all, French romances are just for dreaming, and Japanese girls remain with their reality and cultural priorities.

Aroma Rich, a Soflan brand from Lion, has other scents of happy- fruity Scarlett and elegant-floral Violetta fragrances. Juliette is the scent for love, but be careful at the airport: