![[No-sword]](http://no-sword.jp/images/site/no-sword_banner.jpg)
In entirely unrelated news, "dabudabu" is a kiddie word for "bath"
Dove's Real Beauty campaign has come to Japan. Since half the women featured have Korean-sounding names I correctly deduced that it has hit Korea, too (although I should warn you that Dove's Korean homepage was apparently designed primarily for the purpose of destroying malicious robots by shocking their visual receptors beyond endurance.)
In America, Dove used this campaign to sell firming cream, the message being "It's OK to have curves, as long as they're smooth. Sisters are doin' it for themselves, thanks to Dove: friend of women!" In Japan, they didn't bother with the pseudo-feminism: the message becomes "with the help of our cream, you won't feel the need to conceal your skin any more". (I'm not sure if it's the same cream or not -- it's called "lifting cream" here -- but I assume so.)
The subtle change in focus from "size" to "appearance of skin" intrigues me. I wish I knew enough about the Japanese cosmetics industry to comment on it properly. The obvious answer is that since statistically speaking the Japanese population is less overweight, appealing to fear of fatness is less effective. But in the real world I know plenty of normal-sized Japanese people who still worry about their weight, so I doubt that's it.
Update: While I'm at it, I may as well link to this commercial for Slim Beauty House which, if nothing else, has a novel value proposition: if you are beautifully slim, you will be able to gracefully duck and weave between clumsy drunkards at parties.
Anonymous:
come out to the countryside, specifically countryside where there is snow on the ground for 2-3 months of the year, and you'll find where japan hides it fat people.
daniel