Before BATMAN & ROBIN, there was...

[Ben]

Arnold Schwarzenegger in a series of Japanese commercials, circa 1990's.

Don't ask. Just watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilBiB2Ws9yw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQKWD8R-dY4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0HOqjS ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqoZqJd4pvQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfmdsGrj ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug8KM_nT ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCpTV3Iu ... re=related

[Jet_Jaguar]

Yes, those are all classics. Personally, I'd be pretty freaked out if I found a tiny Governator floating in my energy drink.

I remember reading somewhere that the trend of American celebs going to Japan to do commercials like this is pretty much over, is this accurate? If it is, that's a shame.

How often to Japanese celebrities do wacky commercials like this? I've only seen a few commericals with Japanese celebs (a few with Ryuichi Sakamoto and a couple that Akira Kurosawa did for Suntory whiskey as a marketing tie-in with Kagemusha), but there was nothing particularly "weird" about them (well, this Kirin beer commercial with Sakamoto and his YMO bandmates is a little on the "odd" side: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HOCmLGYhY0I). I'm sure that Takeshi Kitano has probably done a wacky commerical or two, but I've never seen them.

While we're on the subject, here's another strange Japanese commerical with an American celeb that I like (Andy Warhol for TDK videotapes):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x82gWQFEpQA

[Jet_Jaguar]

Yes, those are all classics. Personally, I'd be pretty freaked out if I found a tiny Governator floating in my energy drink.

I remember reading somewhere that the trend of American celebs going to Japan to do commercials like this is pretty much over, is this accurate? If it is, that's a shame.

How often to Japanese celebrities do wacky commercials like this? I've only seen a few commericals with Japanese celebs (a few with Ryuichi Sakamoto and a couple that Akira Kurosawa did for Suntory whiskey as a marketing tie-in with Kagemusha), but there was nothing particularly "weird" about them (well, this Kirin beer commercial with Sakamoto and his YMO bandmates is a little on the "odd" side: http://youtube.com/watch?v=HOCmLGYhY0I). I'm sure that Takeshi Kitano has probably done a wacky commerical or two, but I've never seen them.

While we're on the subject, here's another strange Japanese commerical with an American celeb that I like (Andy Warhol for TDK videotapes):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x82gWQFEpQA

[Kenshiroh]

I remember reading somewhere that the trend of American celebs going to Japan to do commercials like this is pretty much over, is this accurate? If it is, that's a shame.

If that's true, I'm sure it is due to people in America now being able to see the commercials on the Internet.