So Suntory has a new chūhai brand called "Awa's". Awa is Japanese for "froth, bubbles, head (of a beverage)", and the sales hook seems to be that Awa's is fizzy in the extreme! So much so that even young women might want to drink it, instead of the tired, rumple-suited middle-aged men slumped over the bar at midnight who define the traditional market for highballs. Well played, Suntory... well played.

But dig this: the commercial interpolates the "oh-wa-oh" from the Buggles' overclassicked "Video killed the radio star" -- except as "awa-oh". (I was never good at phonetic transcriptions. All are welcome to improve on my notation in comments.)

It's no exaggeration to say that I never even dreamed that such a thing might happen. Such are the diamonds that emerge when you use unfathomable purchasing power to gather half of the world's culture together in one place, and then squeeze.

As an aside, I am not sure whether the "'s" in the brand name is a stiff translation of the particle no (as in awa no chūhai, "froth[y] chūhai"), or a plural indicator with unnecessary apostrophe. I have taken the precaution of writing a curmudgeonly and patronizing letter to the Times about the "brewer's apostrophe", though, just in case.