It’s always fun being back in the U.S., because I get to experience that rarest of sensations, reverse culture shock, when things I see in my home country surprise me because of my years spent in Japan. Today I caught a radio ad for AM/PM Mini Mart whose message was essentially that we should all live the “good life” and treat ourselves to a candy bar today, and that “more is more, at AM/PM.” It was similar to the commercials from Taco Bell promoting “fourthmeal,” a meal between dinner and breakfast that supposedly we should all be eating. Advertising approaches like this probably wouldn’t fly in Japan, a country where bottled unsweetened oolong or green tea is preferred three to one over Coca Cola and where, when given a choice between small and large cans of canned coffee that cost the same money, many will pick the smaller can because that’s all the coffee they feel like drinking just now. Even though I’m a big American, when I go to Wendy’s I’m content to get the smallest Frosty they sell, which is bigger than the large at Wendy’s in Tokyo.
Check it out now!
