Packaging/Concept: This product hits most of the EXTREME foodstuff packaging clichés nicely: extreme is misspelled beginning with an uppercase “x”, it has a grunge aesthetic, there’s faux stenciling in the background, all that stuff.
But two things about it struck me as not being particularly EXTREME. First is the flavor itself, pepper. When I think extreme flavors, kiwi or jalapeño or whatever come to mind, but pepper? That’s a stretch.
But if they’re going to go with pepper, couldn’t they come up with a more extreme name than “Extra Pepper”? Something like “Pepper OVERLOAD!” or “PeppORGASM!” (Y’know, like a pepper orgasm. Tell me that’s not gold.) In the very least, they could have spelled it “Xtra Pepper”, am I right?
But I have to give credit where credit is due: they have created the most EXTREME PEPPER GRINDER I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. Just look at it–it’s literally blasting out peppercorns like a goddamn shotgun!
Granted it doesn’t seem to be doing any actual grinding, as the peppercorns seem to be coming out whole… but maybe they shatter on impact when they smash into something at a hundred miles an hour.
Your dinner will never know what hit it. SUCK ON IT, food.
The quarter pounder with cheese recently made its debut at McDonald’s in Japan, and the campaign they’re using to promote it baffles me. Purchasing a quarter pounder value meal nets you this little package:
It contains a scratch off ticket, both sides of which are shown below: Front: Big Mouth! Quarter Pounder: Japan’s Rose-Colored Plan Back: Scratch off the panel with all your might! If it says “winner”, you’ll receive a rose-colored t-shirt.
Am I missing something here? Is the quarter pounder eating demographic clamoring for pink clothing?
But that’s nothing compared with the button that was also enclosed:
This week I was working on the most complicated drawing I’ve ever done in my life; look out for it on page 93 of Tonoharu: Part Two when it comes out in 2050.
So this week’s entry is another of the “half-assed/eleventh-hour” variety; a youtube clip originally uploaded by someone else. But it’s a good one; like a combination between outsider art and an old Betty Boop cartoon. Enjoy!
Above is an episode of one of my all-time favorite cartoon series. Offhand, it’s the only CG cartoon I can think of that I really enjoy. It’s like a cross between the slapstick of Looney Tunes and the surrealism of Jim Woodring’s work.
It ran on a Japanese cable channel called the “Kids Network”, but honestly I don’t really think it’s appropriate for kids. Watch a few and you’ll see what I mean.
Okay, it’s impossible for me to write this entry in a way that doesn’t make me sound like a total nerd, but oh well. I’m an overweight cartoonist/blogger, so I guess there wasn’t much chance of someone mistaking me for Steve McQueen anyway.
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Some of the stages of my process for creating a comic, such as writing & penciling, require a great deal of mental focus, and are best done in silence. But other stages, like inking and computer stuff, are pretty mindless. For those parts, I usually listen to music, audio books, and podcasts to pass the time.
Certain videos and tv shows also work. You can often get the gist by just listening to the audio and looking up every once in a while for any visual jokes that pop up. I often listen to The Daily Show in this way, for example.
Hands down the nerdiest thing I listen to while I work are “Let’s Play”s, or “LPs”, which are internet videos of people playing video games. There are a surprising number of people that do these, for all sorts of games. Since I listen rather than watch, I prefer ones where the player provides running commentary as they play, and like games that have a story to them; I gravitate towards the old Sierra adventure games of the 80s and 90s.
My two favorite LPers go by the names of hercrabbiness and LateBlt (a video of the latter heads this entry). They appear to be friends, and often provide guest commentary on each other’s videos, with amusing bickering throughout.
Nostalgia probably plays a role in why I enjoy these, since I played Sierra games as a kid. And as I say, I don’t really “watch” them, just have them on in the background while I work; they may not be worth devoting one’s full attention to…
But for all my backpedaling, I really do enjoy them, as the fact that I devoted a blog entry to them would attest. I’m curious if other people would find these entertaining, or if it’s just me. Leave a comment with your impressions.
Also, if anyone has any suggestions for other videos/podcasts/audio that would make for good listening while working, I’m “all ears” (*cough*).
Youtube direct link This has already made the rounds all over th’ Internet, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a watch. Via Digg, Boing Boing, et al
Concept Certain flavors just go together. Peanut butter & jelly, sour cream & chives, coffee & doughnuts… and now thanks to Japanese snack manufacturer Yamaei, we can add a new combination to the pantheon: squid & mayonnaise.
How could no one have thought of it before? The marketing campaign practically writes itself, a la those old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup ads. “Hey, you got squid on my mayonnaise!” “Hey, you got mayonnaise on my squid!” American snack manufacturers, snap this one up before it’s too late.
Packaging The packaging, as shown above, is pretty ho-hum, with the exception of the bitchin’ illustration:
It should be noted that unlike in the U.S.A., where mayonnaise usually comes in jars, in Japan it comes in skinny plastic bottles like this:
This is fortunate for the illustration, because you couldn’t really have a squid riding a rocket-powered mayonnaise jar. That would just be stupid. The aerodynamics would be all off.
Taste: I was expecting the worst, but really they weren’t all that bad. They just had a mild mayonnaise flavor, actually; I couldn’t really detect any hint of squid (though it did smell just a little fishy). If fried mayonnaise chips sound good to you, then this is your product. If not, then… what’s wrong with you? Who wouldn’t want to eat fried mayonnaise chips?
Direct Youtube Link Above is a Japanese ad from the 80s. At the end it says “World Fashion Creator Renown”, so I guess it’s an ad for a clothing manufacturer, maybe? I’m not really sure.
I wish I could have been at the meeting where the advertising agency pitched this ad to the company. What did they say? “Studies show that consumers love ‘bat-shit crazy’. The ‘bat-shit crazier’, the better!”
This clip was brought to my attention by an old friend, who conducts his (or her!) interneting under the alias “vogdoid”. Thanks, “v”!
One of my favorite stores in Japan is called Village Vanguard. It’s a weird and yet somehow harmonious mix of alternative book store and raunchy mall gift shop.
When I went there the other day, I ran across the above product, which is basically one of those parachuting army men toys, only Mario branded.
If you look closely, it’s a kid’s meal toy from Wendy’s.
Mario is owned by Nintendo, which is of course a Japanese company, so I find it funny that they’re importing Mario products from other countries (and crappy Mario products at that). For the kitsch value, I guess? Apparently kitsch value is pretty high, because they’re trying to sell these pieces of garbage for 714 yen, or like $7.50. Yikes!
Though it is vintage; the copyright says 2004, which means that these have been sitting around in a warehouse somewhere for like five years. I wonder what weird distribution network eventually led these to a trendy Japanese chain.
Above is one of my favorite Betty Boop cartoons. It gets particularly good at around the five minute mark, and wraps up with one of the most bizarre, non-sequester endings I’ve ever seen in any cartoon/movie/comic book.
Betty Boop is an interesting case. She’s almost universally known, but most people have never seen any of her cartoons. I bet people would be surprised by how weird they are. These days, Betty exists only to sell mundane, crappy mall merchandise.
Japan has a lot of characters like this. The grand daddy of them all is of course Hello Kitty, the character equivalent of Helvetica, so generic that it/she can remain in style decade after decade. Snoopy is also big here in Japan, but most people don’t know he comes from a comic strip. Stitch from the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch is also big, but I doubt most people have seen the movie he comes from…
Comics are big business here in Japan, which has led to standardization in their creation and distribution. The vast majority are the same size, and in black & white. Even artistically, they’re pretty homogenized (within their respective genres). All boys comics look the same, all girls comics look the same… even “weird” comics all tend to look weird in the same way.
One thing I like about American “alternative” (i.e. “non-superhero”) comics is that they are obscure enough that a standardized way of creating them has never really emerged. This forces every cartoonist to reinvent the wheel, but it’s good in that it leads to a lot of artistic diversity; much more so than in Japan, even though comics are a million times more popular here.
Apropo of all that, the above clip is probably the weirdest inking method I’ve ever seen. Does that guy really draw all his comics that way? I dunno, but it’s pretty cool.
