2005-08-08

Yes, I know the issue isn't the name

Here's an article about a soft drink for kids, which

started out as Guarana, a cola beverage that used to be sold at the Shitamachi-ya restaurant in Fukuoka, run by 39-year-old Yuichi Asaba.
Asaba renamed the sweet carbonated drink Kidsbeer, a move that made it an instant hit.

Except he didn't rename it "Kidsbeer". He renamed it "こどもびいる", kodomobiiru, which, yes, is made of the words kodomo ("kid/s") and biiru ("beer"), but... oh, never mind.

Note that the name is written all in hiragana, for deliberately childlike effect. Actually, hyperchildlike: the first character in kodomo, written by a grown-up, is 子, which is also one of the very first kanji children in Japan learn. (It's easy, it's common, and it's directly representational (of a baby).) I doubt that there are many children old enough to drink a carbonated beverage who do not know the character 子. Whether this represents a kind of super-infantilising market strategy or just a stylistic decision (all hiragana looks neater) is left as an exercise for Karel Van W.

The obvious reaction to this is how terrible, this will lead children to real beer, won't somebody think of the children, but (a) children already want to drink real beer since it's so popular and heavily advertised, and (b) if anything, the shock of going from a sugary, high-inducing lookalike to the bitter depressant that is the real thing will probably be so great that kids will just stick with the substitute.

Popularity factor: 0


Comment season is closed.