Funny ads again...

As I've mentioned before, I like to look at odd, funny, interesting commercials and adds. I saw the story about this one on Anime News Network yesterday.

I don't know how big Pizza Hut is in Japan, but at the very least they certainly sponsor a good deal of anime. Perhaps the most apparent and consistent sponsorship was with Code Geass a few years back, where the female lead, C.C., constantly used the credit card of the male lead, Lelouch, to buy pizza. She also had the nickname pizza girl in the series in part for her risking discovery by the enemy all so she could get a slice of an attempted record setting giant pizza. Her iconic large yellow plushie was an item she received for being a frequent Pizza Hut customer. The U.S audiences weren't "treated" to the specific ad placements when the show made its way state side, but it's relatively easy to spot if you're looking for it.

New anime this season, Attack on Titan, is not the same situation. Don't have any ad placements in-show. The story of the show is that 100 years ago some new beings appeared on earth. They're basically giants who look human but lack the ability to speak, are several meters tall, and all they do is roam about eating humans. So, surviving humans built massive 100-meter walls and live inside those walls... until a new class of titan appears that's even larger and can break down the walls. You can watch the show on Crunchyroll or Funimation (Crunchyroll has free streams a week after the original airing).

At any rate, as the image below shows, there is a magazine over there in Japan with an ad for the show, and featuring Pizza Hut as a sponsor. Here's what you have to remember - the premise of the show is that the ONLY thing titans (the giant humanoid with no flesh in the picture) only eat humans. They completely ignore all other potential food sources; cows, pigs, dogs, whatever - the ONLY eat humans. I don't know about anyone else, but knowing that as the show's premise, and then showing a titan eating a pizza from Pizza Hut does not immediately make me want to eat Pizza Hut pizza. I get memories a la Soylent Green. If you don't know what Soylent Green is, you have to Google it. The movie is old, but it's a great piece of science fiction.

As for Pizza Hut, we appreciate your support of the anime industry... but could you try a slightly different tact with your ads? This one slightly misses the mark I think.