Kimura Takuya and Ebi Chan : Most recognizable Japanese Celebrities

This is Kimura Takuya, the biggest product hawker in Japan. His image is used to sell absolutely everything from gum to cameras to fast food to hair products. If you come to Japan even for a week, you'll see him basically every day whether or not you turn on the television. His ads are on trains, in bus stops, in shopping malls. You cannot escape Kimura Takuya.

He is very popular with girls here, but I think he's irritating. I think that overexposure doesn't apply in Japan. Actually, that's exactly what it is, now that I think about it a little more. That's why American celebrities can come to Japan and hawk random noodle products that would get them made fun of back home. But doing loads of product advertisements doesn't hurt an actor or actress or singer over here like it would elsewhere in the world. In fact, being in advertisements in Japan actually makes a celebrity even more popular. Cameron Diaz is so famous here in Japan, mostly because everyone has had to see her image in Softbank cellphone ads every day for over a year. There is also an actress over here called Ebi Chan who is like the female version of Kimura Takuya in that her face is used to sell every single thing in the country. Recently, she has been appearing on super embarrassing television ads. Her name is Ebi Chan because her name is long and begins Ebi____ somethingorother so people shortened it to Ebi, which in Japanese means "shrimp". Chan is a term of affection like "miss" or "Lil" in English. So essentially, her nickname is "Little miss Shrimp" and McDonalds decided use her in a series of horrible advertisements for shrimp burgers. When an American celebrity decides to model for a cheezy company like McDonalds, they worry that it could cheapen their careers so they don't try to associate themselves too much with the product outside of the ads. Ebi Chan though, bless her heart, poses on red carpets with the McDonald's hamburger.I couldn't find the worst advertisement, in which Ebi Chan skateboards to work while holding a Filet O Fish and does this Tony Hawk jump against the wall a Japanese office and then looks at the camera and winks and takes a bite of the fishburger. But you are really all the better for not seeing it. You're all the better if you don't even try to imagine it. Here's a different one, also pretty bad.


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