For most, TV advertising is just way too expensive. It obviously is for AOL at the moment. Most businesses use it to get their products in front of the most people possible. Most people would jump at the chance to appear on TV. So imagine my excitement when I got an interesting email from a gentleman based in London working on behalf of NHK, the Japanese state broadcaster. Consider them the BBC of Japan.
In the email I was asked whether I would give NHK permission to use my images and designs of the jam and cream first t-shirts. Of course I said yes! Who wouldn’t?
The shirts would be featured on a show starring the Japanese actress, Reiko Takashima. The show’s title loosely translated was, Journey of Exquisite Sweets. Reiko climbed aboard the Orient Express in the UK to embark on a trip across Europe discovering and eating the best sweet treats across the continent.
This is where my shirt designs come in. During their trip in the UK, the show started talking about the age old debate whether it should be jam or cream first. I’m from Devon so I’m always going to say cream first. It makes total sense. Would you put the butter on top of the filling in a sandwich? I think not. Anyway, Reiko talked about the debate on the show and, while talking, images of my shirts popped up on the screen. The web address also appeared! The host even went as far as to say that the Queen has said in the past that she would do her scones with jam first. Of course she would, her son owns most of Cornwall. Unfortunately, I am not able to show you a clip of the show due to copyright reasons, but I can show you some stills from the show!
You can see the page about the programme here:
https://www6.nhk.or.jp/nhkpr/post/original.html?i=22135
The news website, Cornwall Live, also did an article about the programme which can be found here:
https://www.cornwalllive.com/whats-on/food-drink/japan-falling-love-cornish-cream-3781884
Due to the programme being featured, many Japanese viewers popped onto this site to find the shirts, we even sold some. Some chose the jam first and some bought the cream first. Some even bought both! After the show was aired I had a look on Twitter to see what was being said over in Japan. After translating the tweets, it turns out a lot of people were talking about the jam and cream debate. It was great fun to read the comments as well as reply to some of them giving them greetings from the UK and asking which way round they would put the scones.
The idea of my shirts appearing on Japanese TV and enraging the jam and cream debate amongst Japanese viewers is great. I’d like to thank Hanako from NHK for contacting me about the shirts and getting them featured on the show. I can now say that our products are as seen on TV!
Excellent Jude.