An Instant Noodle Company’s Ads

 

I found more Nissin's ads.

These two were cooperated with Studio Ghibli. They’re so cute! Although I couldn’t understand Japanese, I played them several times silently. (Basically, the lyrics are simply about Japanese diet culture.) When I stopped, I began to think: in the first place, what kinds of ad is a ramen company supposed to make? Talking about its fresh ingredients? Presenting an industrial process? Collecting praises from customers? What else? I couldn’t go further, all I could come up with are just common methods food companies might use or even less. Every company understands clearly that the audience is facing tremendous ads everyday, and an instant noodle company obviously is facing a more serious problem. You cannot sell a cup of noodle as an automobile. A cup of noodle is too cheap. Nobody will spend much time on choosing a flavor. Customers buy it just for its convenience. So when spending much money on the ad, a ramen company has to be cogitative.

Nissin’s decision is to give up traditional introduction ads, and turns to cultural ads. Most of time, these ads look like short movies. They are light-mood, nostalgic or funny, but never aggressive. These ads can easily attract the audience and will not make the audience feel annoyed. I watched some other instant food brands’ ads, figuring out they were all trying to persuade people that their fast food is as fresh as the real noodles, which I regarded them as an offense to those excellent cooks. While watching Nissin’s ads, I think they are friendly. This brand gives me a gentle impression that it knows local culture well. And it’s true that instant noodle is a part of daily life in Japan. As long as it’s safe and delicious, people will keep buying it. So Nissin can take a risk making these cultural ads. However, if an automobile company keeps using cultural ads, people may began to wonder or even suspect the qualities of the real products.