GLEE

It's important to note that all good foreign things abroad when brought to Japan must be Japanified and put into a context which the Japanese can understand and relate. Case in point: the new hit TV show GLEE on FOX about a bunch of misfit teens in Ohio who form a glee club called New Directions.

You have probably gotten to witness their iconic high school struggles with popularity, puberty, and other teenage angst, all whilst jamming out to some rocking tunes. (Ironically my older brother was in the glee club in high school, and he and his glee club friends used to have singing parties in our basement. He lost his virginity at age 27.)

However, when you watch the below GLEE advert aired in Japan earlier this year, you naturally may think to yourself, how the f*ck does this advertise a show about a high school glee club? Believe it or not, 9 out of 10 Japanese polled after viewing this clipp affirmed their excitment to watch a satire drama about a bunch of American high school students in a glee club. Meanwhile 9 out of 10 American polled thought that it was a show about Akebono singing Journey songs with fat sumo children.

The point of this post is that clearly what works in America, will not work in Japan, a land where they drive their cars on the other side of the street, Godzilla rules, and George Michael's Last Christmas is the du rigueur Christmas song of choice.