Here’s an odd tale for the day: SoftBank, as in the Japanese telecom, is in talks to possibly acquire DreamWorks Animation SKG. Apparently DreamWorks has been looking for new funding for a while now, but most companies haven’t been interested. DreamWorks films has been having a certain issue since it went public: its movies would open soft and then build up a huge final gross. Great, right? Well, investors don’t like soft openings, and shares would frequently plummet when a film would open. Sadly, shareholders don’t understand the movie industry, it seems. Thus, getting additional funding could help DreamWorks Animation quite a bit. No paper has been signed yet, but it’ll be interesting to see how this whole affair proceeds. Read more…
The other week, Softbank debuted a lengthy 5 minute 30 second long ad for their mobile phones starring the ever-popular “White family.” For those of you who haven’t seen any of the previous ads, they were centered around a multi-racial Japanese family with a dog (Otousan) as the father and often range from hilarious to adorable. The latest ad sees Otousan attempting to fulfill his dream of traveling in space, and guest-stars Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, who had spent several months on the International Space Station last year. you can watch that portion of the ad above. The final three minutes of the full ad feature former Japanese boy-band, turned Television hosts, SMAP and can be viewed by clicking here. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 3, 2009 in Japanese TV
This new commercial in Japan for SoftBank is the coolest thing right now: It features the J-pop group SMAP (Sports Music Assemble People) with the powerful 1974 recording of The Loco-Motion by Grand Funk Railroad. I’ve got to say I usually hate when an agency grabs an old hit, but in this case they’ve done a nice of bringing it back to life! Read more…
