If you’re going to set up a marketing campaign on the sidewalk in Tokyo, you’d better come to the table with something that catches people’s attention or they’ll walk right on by without even a glance. This means going beyond just handing out packets of tissues, and connecting with the psyche of your market. In Japan, it means being cute, especially if you’re selling to women. On our way home from our interview with CNN, we witnessed this promotion in bustling Harajuku for “Turbo Cell” , a cheap and boring-looking product that instantly becomes cute with the presence of piglets.
Scores of people stopped to play with the pigs and, in the process, were exposed to the ads on their cute little t-shirts and then felt obliged to accept a flier from the promoters. Since everyone was taking photos on their mobiles, the ads will eventually make their way to friends and family as well.
While the connection between some kind of weight-control product and pigs eludes us at the moment, it doesn’t matter because those piglets are so adorable we didn’t even bother to find out what “Turbo Cell” actually does. More than a few onlookers uttered gasps of disbelief when we remarked on how tender and delicious they looked.
Michael is CEO and Co-Founder of the 
I love when I come across things like this – makes me laugh and makes me wonder what people are thinking, all at the same time. Thanks for the find!
In Romania we sometimes say that a fat person “eats like a pig”. Would that be the connection? The campaign is funny and it seems to me that “funny” is the most people will recall of it–piglets with T-shirts. Let us not forget that a good campaign kills a bad product… faster.
Very cute! I wish I could own a pig too!