The recent overload of Suntory self-promotion in Bartender prompted a discussion of product placement in anime. Thank you to LiA patron Casey W., who on reading the conversation asked me to put together a top 5 (or 9) list of anime product placements.
I’ll preface this by saying that, as always, this is limited to shows I’ve seen (which is actually a pretty tiny percentage of all of them). Also, this list is in no particular order.
We all know anime is legendary for its creative dodging of copyright laws – “Starducks Coffee”, “WcDonald’s”, et al. But real (paid) product placement has always been a thing in anime, and more so now than ever. The Bartender thing is on another level because Suntory is actually a highly-placed member of the production committee (which doesn’t make it any less distasteful), but that certainly counts too. So let’s start there.
Bartender: Kami no Glass – Needs no expectation really. Suntory is ponying up the dough to not just plaster their (many) brands throughout the show, but also to hype its Yamazaki Distillery (so popular now there’s a lottery for tickets just to do a tasting and self-guided tour), and bartending competitions.
MF Ghost – At the risk of being accused of recency bias, I’ll also include MF Ghost, which is absolutely lathered with auto manufacturers and flannel about how cool their cars are.
Nodama Cantabile – I’ll qualify this by stating that I think Nodama Cantabile is a wonderful series (especially the first season). But the Yamaha presence is really gauche – talk about omnipresent. Something of a similar case to Bartender, as Yamaha was the main sponsor of the series (productions committees weren’t yet the all-powerful entities they are now).
Code Geass – Not a favorite of mine but one of the most legendary product placement anime ever. Pizza Hut (no stranger to controversy on this front, even in anime) is all over it. And unlike with Suntory or Yamaha where at least it’s thematically consistent, here’s it’s just totally gratuitous and distracting (kind of the opposite of the Nichijou Snickers placement, which actually plays off the incongruity of it to fuel the gag). It’s so bad some of it was edited out when the series was picked up by Netflix.
Tiger & Bunny – Kind of half and half on the thematic front. The brands are certainly in your face, but they’re on-screen as what they are in the narrative – advertising – since the heroes all have sponsors who get hyped on their costumes. Got worse in the second season.
Dagashi Kashi – I hesitate to even include this, as it would have been hard to even make the series without talking about the Japanese snacks where are the basis of the premise. But it certainly represents as prominent a case of product placement (charming though it is) as you’re going to see in anime.
Rebuild of Evangelion – Simply put, it’s product placement ad nausea (pun intended). The brand names are just everywhere.
Shinkai Makoto – I’d also include Shinkai Makoto in this blockbuster bucket, which is fitting as he’s done many straight-up ads himself. All of Shinkai’s movies starting with Your Name have had a ton of product placement, with McDonald’s being probably the most prominent.
And finally, an honorable mention to Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu. It generally sticks to the parody names of places like McDonald’s and Starbucks (and “Fairy Mart”), but it has a couple of great Dagashi Kashi-style bits. First “This is Puruche!”, one of the funniest sight gags in animanga. Then the Papico bit, which is an important relationship moment for Kyou and Anna.
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