Nintendo aren’t a company that usually tries to
offend people. But in 2004, they released an ad for the DS which ended up accidentally doing
just that. Making a group of Japanese internet users more than a little annoyed. But when I show
you the ad, you almost certainly won’t know why. In fact, here it is. See if you can
figure out what made people so angry. So, on first glance, there doesn’t
seem to be anything there to offend people. But let's translate. What the lady in the advert said translates to,
“Would you mind if I touch it?” Obviously, that’s a bit of a double entendre. It refers to the DS’s
touchscreen, but it also has a sexual undertone to it. That might seem unusual for Nintendo, but this
was actually their marketing strategy for the DS across the globe. Like, these images come from
a marketing campaign for the DS lite in europe. Though you might be mistaken for thinking
they’re something out of Playboy magazine! Now, these images are a lot more sexually
charged than the Japanese advert, so why did only that one end up offending
people? Well, it’s not actually the line, “Would you mind if I touch it?” that that
upset people. Nor the sexual undertone. No, to understand just what was wrong with this ad, we
need to find out who the woman in it actually is. This is pop star Utada Hikaru. You might know
her for writing and singing the theme songs to all 3 Kingdom Hearts games, but inside Japan,
she’s a lot more famous than just that. She was named “the most influential
artist of the decade” by the Japan Times at the end of the 2000s, and she sang
hit after hit after hit - she's a megastar! And, she is also a gamer, haha! As proof,
she managed to reach a score of 999,999,999 on Tetris. Which is pretty darn impressive.
And so, when Nintendo were deciding who to feature in their marketing campaign
for their new handheld console, the DS, they figured Utada Hikaru would be a good
choice. And at the end of each ad, they played a short snippet from one of her more recent songs.
An english language song called Easy Breezy. And that’s where the controversy began. Let me read you the chorus of Easy Breezy. “I still remember the ways that you touched me Now I know I don't mean anything to you
You're easy breezy and I'm Japaneesy Soon you'll mean exactly nothing to me
Does that mean anything to you?” Now, that line half way through, “You’re
easy breezy and I’m Japaneesy”. When some Japanese internet users heard that line,
they were outraged. According to a Kotaku article on the controversy, this line
was construed as meaning "あたしは手軽にヤレる日本人" or roughly, "I'm a Japanese
girl you can easily screw". It was like the song was perpetuating stereotypes
of Japanese women, that they were easy. And so, it seemed outrageous that this song was
featured in Nintendo’s marketing campaign. What on earth were they doing? Why would they
include such an offensive song in their adverts? Except, these internet users were wrong. They
were completely misunderstanding the meaning of Utada Hikaru’s song. In an interview,
she said, “When I dress girlie in New York, I always feel like I look like a
hooker just because I’m Asian,” she continued “I look in the Village Voice, and
there’s three pages devoted to ‘Asian Girls’ ads.” In other words, Utada was encountering
the exact same problems and stereotypes as the Japanese fans who were outraged by
the song. And so, if we look over that line a second time with this context in mind,
it seems likely that the actual meaning is completely different than how it first seemed.
Utada is actually criticizing the man that song is directed towards for treating her as easy,
as a throwaway relationship, just because she’s Japanese. Utada’s song was trying to defend
the very people that it managed to outrage. But regardless of this controversy, the song was
picked to be used in Nintendo’s ad for the DS, although the line, “You’re easy breezy and I’m
japaneesy” in the end was never actually used in the ad, even after all the debate that took
place. The DS, as you know, went on to be a major success, to say the least, and it was
all thanks to Utada Hikaru and her song! No, but, these ads did contribute in some small
way, to the success of the console. Well done, Utada, now you can take a break. Sit back, relax,
grab something to eat. No, not that, hahah! Thanks for watching this look back onto a
weird obscure bit of DS history. If you’re interested in videos more like this, go take a
look at some of my other videos on this channel. Plus, you can support the channel on Patreon - it
really helps! That’s patreon.com/ThomasGameDocs
