WILLisms.com: Japanese Politics Is Pure Genius.

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Japanese Politics Is Pure Genius.

In the United States, we're familiar with sexy spokesmodels for all kinds of products. In Japan they've taken it to a whole new level.

In Japan, campaign girls are not "boat show" models (no offense to those), they are considered legitimate modeling positions, and they are often parlayed into acting or other endeavors.

For example, Actress Misaki Ito is just one example of a popular actress who is simultaneously a campaign girl for a Japanese company, All Nippon Airways:

The latest Japanese political innovation involves using these same campaign girls to sell political ideas.

But these campaign girls are not promiting revolutionary movements or animal rights or the other traditional political spheres of influence.

Lingerie maker Triumph International is employing these campaign girls to sell mundane political issues to the public (and more likely, to gain publicity), such as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's effort to privatizatize Japan's postal service.

Which side would you pick?

Click to see the full post.

The impetus behind the idea is to make even the most boring of ideas sexy, the dullest of proposals worth paying attention to. This brilliant bit of gimmickery would probably not work in the United States, with our rich traditions of both puritanism and feminism.

If we were witnessing "privatization total surprise bras" in the West, it might be evidence of a major cultural shift, toward a post-feminist era. In Japan, not so much.

Riding Sun blog hopes this will start a trend of applying the Babe Theory for mundane political issues. President Bush is very chummy with Prime Minister Koizumi. Maybe they'll trade secrets.

Can you imagine the Social Security Reform Babes? Or the Confirm Them Darlings? Or, what about the Progressive Indexing Prancers?

Someday.

Posted by Will Franklin · 10 May 2005 10:45 PM

Comments

That's a good one! "Social Security Reform Babes" -- unfortunately, I can imagine them, and it's not a good picture. ;-)

Posted by: Andy Dabydeen at May 11, 2005 07:47 AM

Where there is a WILLisms.com
There is a Babe theory!!!....

Posted by: Linda at May 11, 2005 11:29 AM

Junichiro...Is that his real name? I wonder what that name translates into English?

Posted by: Zsa Zsa at May 11, 2005 02:00 PM

Social Security Reform Babes could be a good thing. How would the babe theory apply here? Would Social Security be mostly Republican babes or would there be quite a few Democrat babes too?...I would venture to say there would be quite a few of both after checking out ROCK THE VOTE. It seems like Hans didn't have a whole lot of supporters for his cause...

Posted by: Walter at May 11, 2005 05:06 PM

Sex sells, but it isn't ethical. Obviously I would rather look at hot people, over old politicians, but nevertheless, there are other ways to get someones attention.

Posted by: Carly at May 11, 2005 07:19 PM