imomus | The etiquette of public information display

The etiquette of public information display

I like the anti-smoking poster campaign currently being run on JR trains in Japan. It's a pretty virulent and imaginative attack on the insensitivity of smokers towards the people around them.

But why does the Health Authority financing the campaign sign off with the slogan 'Meet your delight'? Hang on, this is not an anti-smoking campaign. It's an advertising campaign paid for by Japan Tobacco. I can only assume it's a desperate attempt by the Japanese tobacco industry to demonstrate responsibility and make the case for self-regulation. Except that if you look at what the ads are saying, it's all about proposing a new etiquette of smoking in which it's up to the individual smoker to regulate himself.

I suppose, given the choice between doing the honourable thing -- committing seppuku -- and letting the customer die on their behalf, Japan Tobacco is opting for the customer's death. As long as he realizes that it's up to him to clear up his entrails afterwards in a responsible manner.

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Omg, I love humans.

I love all your Japan entries, but this is my favorite.

My goodness, that's a rather interesting look at tobacco. Very creative, no?
I'm sick and tired of these vile tobacco images here in Canada on the cigarette boxes... decaying teeth, comparisons of cigarettes to the male penis, all very fun, but still vile. The problem is the images never change, thus one becomes completely desensitized to them, making the ad's fail in the long run. This Japanese ad though is just interesting, and if I might ad, well designed... but then I digress.

Zachary Daiquiri, Esq.

I like the campaign, too. it's so removed from the american style of anti-smoking ads (pregnant bellies with cigarettes poking out of the navel and so on) that it might just be effective if they adopted it here.

Here's my favourite of the JT secondhand smoke series:

I started noticing these ads around about March of this year.
The situation in Japan is gradually improving for non-smokers.
But it's still pretty bad.

Another item of interest. Apparently JT runs a chain of hospitals.
Rumour has it that they may not be very good at keeping statistics.

Or is it all a collective effort to ease the problem of the
ageing society?

Cheers,

What does that poster on the right say in the cloud of 'gas', is it 'BLING'?

JT, like many tobacco companies, has realised that the end is nigh and diversified into food and pharmaceuticals. Hospitals are a wise transitional business to be in, at least until they phase out the death products and concentrate on products compatible with life.

I think it's 'BLIND'.

These are great. I especially like the rat's shocked look at finding a butt in the sewer.

I think this is an excellent campaign for Japan, where politeness, and keeping within one's own space, is so valued. God knows what would work here, maybe "Woo hoo, you STINK!" ads?

It says blind. The picture was taken a few months ago by a friend using one of those tiny 1 or 2 Mpixel cameras.

A place that does seem to be good with statistics:

http://www.ncc.go.jp/en/statistics/2003/index.html

Their graphs are nicely designed as well.

For a bit of a scare, check the comparison of 5 year survival
rates for prostate cancer between the USA and Japan.

The emphasis on politeness is interesting, I presume it's a Japanese thing. I'd pay money to see an anti-smoking campaign based in New York that compared smoking to bumping into someone.

The cowboy ad is hilarious when taken out of its context. I stole it for my blog.

i had a debate in my graduate seminar here in japan about whether there is a causal relationship between smoking and cancer (which was somehow related to a paper we read about causal relations in channel management power struggles... beats me.) the prof was a hard-ass, long time smoker who had recently given up but wasn't sold on the links between tobacco and cancer, and preparing for class, we had to read this diatribe written by an ex-JT employee about how the anti-smoking brigades were all educated middle-class goody-goody effetes trying to make the lower classes feel bad about themselves.

i started building a strong case against selling tobacco from a marketing perspective, and then one of the other profs said, "Yes, I noticed that in North America, they are all pretty much sure that tobacco and cancer are related." And it hit me: the Japanese do not even believe that smoking causes cancer. They think, hey maybe there is some correlation, but it's not proven yet. These were highly educated people saying things like "Well, when the link is proven, then we can make better decisions..."

This is what happens when a government monopoly owns tobacco production for a long long time; no one in power benefits from anti-smoking campaigns.

The guy that said that this is a way to ease the growing eldery population is on to something...

But I have this feeling that the death rates in Japan from tobacco are not as high because they eat a lot less junk than Americans and thus have less incidence of heart disease.

The Health Ministry has been pushing for a more active
role by the government in alerting the population of the
dangers of smoking (have a browse through the statistics
at the link above). Their attempts are thwarted by the
powerful Ministry of Finance, which gets a lot of it's
revenues from, guess where, JT.

A friend teaching at a medical college in Osaka told me
that some years ago, a few of his colleagues subscribed to a
theory that Japanese were immune to AIDS because of racial
differences in blood types.

An even further-out folk theory I heard from a young woman
in a gaijin bar once: Japanese are protected from AIDS by
all the cigarettes they smoke.

these are not anti-smoking ads but seem to be designed to promote smoking, to make it cool (as long as you have manners).

the cow boy one is like father ted explaining to dougal

fantastic stuff

I thought I was certain about going back to the Czech Republic, but I don't know, your posts make me really really want to go to Japan.

I don't know what's more surprising about these ads: the slightly passive-aggressive approach or the excellent English.

I suppose passive aggression is to aggression what passive smoking is to smoking...

funny, i was thinking the same thing

I had a dream I met you in Ithaca. You were performing. It was strange, however, because you were putting on a play. It was sort of medieval or like one of the Eusa puppet shows in Russel Hoban's Riddley Walker. You wore a Punch's nose and a bright green t-shirt. I do not recall what you were performing, but you ran about the stage and at one point carried a lamp and wore a veil. I believe it was a morality tale.

I enjoyed my dream, and your work, and these posters highlighting the brilliantly understated persuasion of the Japanese, &c. &c.

I find I can put on much better shows in people's dreams than I can in real life. Labour and material costs in dreams are much more reasonable, for a start. In real life you just can't get the carpenters.

Oddly enough I remember the performance took place on a street corner near the Chaunticlier restaurant. It was all very impromptu and wholly lacking in sets or really any cohesive format whatsoever. But then, the logistics of dreams are always a bit lacking... So I guess what I mean is your performing in real life would probably be superior because I could have the delight in remembering it somewhat better. With or without carpenters. (Not that I didn't catch that little metaphor...)

That sounds like something Woody Allen would say. Ever considered a career as a Jewish comedian?

I am too calm to be Woody Allen. But I do enjoy Jewish studies. Just reading God's Phallus, good stuff.

Hello! I found your journal via lord_whimsy's, and I realy enjoyed reading about your first page here. I've never been to Japan, but have long admired their ink and water landscape painters, especially Seshu and Sesson. My profile is but a click away if you're interested but, briefly, I'm a potter from England. May I add you to my friends list?

You don't have to ask!

Ah, but it's only the polite thing to do, no?!!

I don't think it's the polite thing to do, necessarily. 600 or so people have added me as a friend. Imagine if I'd had to give each one written permission! Think of the paperwork!

i know this is a couple of posts behind, but the just before i read this i watched the south park episode about smoking. they end up advocating the same exact thing, individual responsibility, and using crudely drawn cartoons also.

I've been saving the best of these ads for last (or rather, I only saw it yesterday, on a wall in America-Mura, here in Osaka:

This one is weird, not just because of the idea that smaller litter is more litter, but because of the argument that we should stop smoking because it hurts a cigarette's feelings to be smoked then thrown away. (And is the stick man really having sex with the cigarette, or does it just look like it?)

By the way, follow-up debate about these ads has been going on at Jean Snow's blog:

http://jeansnow.net/2004/08/12/jt-and-the-dangers-of-smoking/#comments

Hi! I recently saw the Dave Attell Insomniac Special, "Sloshed in Translation", and he was on a subway and highlighted the Anti-tobacco ad with the cowboy.

"The lonely cowboy flicks his cigarette butt into the street. But he lives in an old movie."

I was wondering if you had an image of this anymore, or if possible if you could get a clear picture of one -- I know that's a big favor to ask, esp. if you're not in Japan anymore (then it's impossible) -- but I would really appreciate it, as I want to make a Tshirt out of it.

Thanks a bunch in advance!

(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g307/mikedough2/engrish/Japan432.jpg) (http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g307/mikedough2/engrish/Japan433.jpg)
In Harajuku.

Sorry, they're not well-taken photos. The signs were printed on glass and the photo was taken around dusk. Click on the pics for an enlargement.

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The etiquette of public information display

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JT

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tobacco = death in japan

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Hello!

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