underground workout

Aquarius “Active” sports drink, which has less calories than their other sports drinks, is aimed specifically at body conscious women. This poster on a subway train gives instructions on stretching exercises that can be done in seven steps (seven seconds) while standing on a train. Their TV ads also feature women finding ways to do simple exercises while doing ordinary things. Go here to watch an ad stage6.divx.com .

I tried following the diagrams on the train, but felt very, very silly…

better training from JR

JR is promoting its new shinkansen (bullet train) by plugging its environmentally friendly design. AFP compares JR’s N700 to France’s TVG (world’s fastest train service), saying that JR preferred to concentrate on the train’s co-friendliness rather than on its speed. See here www.terradaily.com for more info.

The new train, which begins running next month, will stop at Kyoto (because of the Kyoto Protocol and the train’s efforts to be eco-friendly), will use 19 percent less electricity than other bullet trains (and therefore produce less CO2 emissions), and have no smoking carriages (yes we do still have those here!) although it will have special ventilated smoking areas.

marathon blog 11 (last one), T with a T

This is Kirin tea’s tie-up with Uniqlo T-shirts (available in UT, see below). The labels on the tea bottles will have the same preppie-like check patterns that are used on the T-shirts. There must be a reason why they are all reminiscent of an ’80s fashion nightmare probably best forgotten, just don’t know what it is…

marathon blog 5, unexplained google

At last a way to make money from wandering aimlessly across the planet on Google Earth!

This Japanese sbicard campaign is offering 1000,000 yen to anyone who can find that particular crop circle via Google Earth.

marathon blog 4, late cherry

Argh, this is really late. Green tea using plastic cherry blossom on train ads. Of course for cherry-blossom viewing season.

marathon blog 2, real super heroes

Quite a while ago, there was an emergency services parade in Tokyo. Reminded me of the Prince Pickles affair. But these ones look less like they are on acid.

real material girl

Been a bit slack, so this post is a bit late.

But, yes, that is Madonna, and yes, that is a building in Tokyo. I can’t believe that of all the things she could put her name to, she has decided to do an ad for a high rise apartment block. Search YouTube to see the TV ad, where you get to hear Madonna say: “Beyond race, beyond gender, beyond religion, beyond culture, beyond tomorrow…” as the camera zooms up to a futuristic looking Madonna who says “Just perfect.” I never knew a building could be so dramatic, or that one could or need be beyond anything… aside from the building in front of it.

Aesthetically-speaking, though, the ad is kind of cool, thanks to fashion photographer Steven Klein ( http://the-artists.org)

To see just what Style Madonna Tokyo Ariake and Brillia Mare is all about, see www.b-m-a.jp which gives the location, images of the kind of views you’ll get from your windows, and apartment floor plans. I had a browse the other day, and if anyone out there can afford one of these… um, will you be my best friend?

go! london, only a bunny hop away

This is how we entice the Japanese to London, by calling it the “Bunny Republic.” It is actually advertising for a campaign found on “Totally LondOn,” London’s official Web site. Of all the countries represented on visitlondon.com, Japan is naturally the only one with the blue bunnie hats.

Check  visitlondon.promotionbox.jp to see more “Bunny Republic” pics of London (the one featured here is just one of many different posters that were taking over a whole carriage of a Yamanote train), and get your very own London Bunny Republic passport. You think I am joking don’t you?

pingmag does it better, but anyway

A while ago PingMag Did a great post about ads in stations and on trains here: www.pingmag.jp
which reminded me that I had a few recent train poster ads that I didn’t really have much to say about except “Oh that’s nice.” (Like the Gap one…) So here they are.

Starting with my favorite for Kuroneko (Black Cat) delivery service. A bubble-pack wrapped ad. Temptation to pop bubbles on your journey is incredibly high. They also had a brown paper one and a polystyrene sheet one.

For TV Asahi, a popup ad.

It’s kind of hard to make out, but those basil leaves on this Pizza La ad are actually attached by clear strips so that they bounce and sway as the train moves.

See PingMag for other interesting ways to use train space and stations. They do it so much better, but I just wanted to get these pics off my chest.

groovin’ with gap

I’m not a big Gap fan, but I am a big corduroy fan. And already I hear all the fashionistas rolling in laughter or silently mortified at the thought of Gap and corduroy in the same sentence. Well i don’t care…

O.K. I do; so even if most people I know would rather be seen with a supermarket-store carrier bag than a Gap one, I will stick my neck out and ungroovily get into the Gap groove. Their ads on trains are actually made from purple corduroy, up close it looks like this:

which I thought was quite nice.

I liked the pattern printed on the material too. So much so that, yes, I actually went to Gap. Luckily for my Gap-hating friends, the products themselves were, well, you know, Gap-like, so I went home empty-handed.

But still, as far as corduroy is concerned, this post goes out to my friend at college who, after meeting me for perhaps the second time, felt the need to say “Wow, I like the way you wear corduroy pants. I don’t think I’ve seen a pair of those since I was, er, 11.”

Well, I’m still doing it, and it’s expanded to jackets. Bet you’re really scared to meet me now…