A grocery store cat started hanging out at a train station. On a whim, the station administrator put a little hat on the cat and started to call it Super Stationmaster Tama. Now Japanese are flocking from all corners of the country to take pictures of the cat, calling it a "once in a lifetime opportunity." For real? I guess people like cats. Roll tape:
Embedded video from <a href="http://www.cnn.com/video" mce_href="http://www.cnn.com/video">CNN Video</a>
Is this post-advertising?
Client: "Isolated town of just a few thousand people"
Agency: Stationmaster Worldwide
Campaign: Build a character, let that character live in the real world
Result: Tourist boom in the town
Of course, this is some great post-advertising (dummy!). What surprises me is that the Japanese en masse have not picked up on this sooner, this thing that has been the technique of small towns accross the US ever since there was a US: The small-town attraction. Biggest apple in the world, largest ball of string, world's largest lobster. Roadside attractions, as we call them, are a big part of Americana. Perhaps Tama the cat will be the start of an American-influenced wave of Japanicana.