the tall blond guy goes to japan

Marketing gone nutso

am-pm

Today, I saw a Kinko's. It looked just like any Kinko's anywhere in the entire world. All the signs were in English. No Japanese. Very bizarre! Makes me wonder how I'll manage when I get back to Vancouver, being able to understand everything that happens around me.

Anyway, one of the stores I see everywhere is "am-pm". Little 7-Eleven-type places selling all kinds of convenience store type things.

I was browsing around after work with a couple of co-workers. I wandered by the drugstore shelf, looking at all the boxes. Toothpaste, soap, pads, tampons- hey! There's Bad Badtz Maru!

Bad Badtz Maru is a popular Japanese marketing device. I don't know if there are actually cartoons based on him, but he's from the same company, Sanrio, that Hello Kitty is from. He's "the baddest little penguin around". I've got quite a thing for penguins, therefore Bad Badtz Maru is a big favourite.

But what's he doing in the drugstore section of an am-pm?

The box.

I took a box off the shelf and looked it over. No obvious hints as to its content. Judging by its size and location, perhaps bandaids?

I called over one of my coworkers who knows a bit of Japanese. She took it and read the back carefully. Soon enough, she said, much to her own surprise, "They're condoms!"

Now the pictures on the front make sense!

Opening the box reveals mostly plain, ordinary condoms (they've got an odd green tint though...), sealed in foil wrappers decorated with Bad Badtz Maru singing and dancing. His sexually ambiguous seal-friend Good Hanamaru is there too. No sign of female life though. Perhaps Mr. Badtz Maru is gay?