Ippon Manzoku Bar

About

Ippon Manzoku Bar (Japanese : 1本満足バー or 一本満足バー, lit. One Satisfaction Bar), is a cereal bar made by Asahi Food & Health Care, a related company to Asahi Breweries that is a leading brewery and soft drink company in Japan^[1].

Its trade name roughy means “A (cereal) bar that can satisfy your hunger alone”, and the concept of this cereal bar is a help for hunger of business workers who have to make one more effort in their overtime work from evening.

Soon after its commercial began to air in October 2010, its highly comical chorus and dance became a subject of parodies on Nico Nico Douga (NND), a video sharing service in Japan.

Origin

On October 18th, 2010, Asahi Food & Health Care started a TV commercial for Ippon Manzoku Bar^[2]. Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, a member of the popular Japanese idol group SMAP, was casted as its protagonist for the first TV ads for this cereal bar.

It’s plot was very simple : In a office, Kusanagi, who wanted to eat Ippon Manzoku Bar as soon as the clock strikes 5 P.M., came to eat it and dance for the joy for it with co-workers’ song and handclap.

Script :

In that news release^[2], this commercial’s director said that Kusanagi winged his dancing completely, and the studio was full of laughter.

Background : Tsuyoshi Kusanagi

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi is also famous for his shameful affair caused in April 2009.

Excerpts from Wikipedia Entry^[3] :

Around 3 a.m. on April 23, 2009, Kusanagi was arrested on suspicion of public indecency. Reportedly he was dancing naked while under the influence of alcohol in Hinokicho park in Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. When confronted by police who were called to the spot he responded “what’s wrong with being naked? (裸だったら何が悪い Hadaka dattara naniga warui?)”, which went on to become an online meme in Japan.

Kusanagi appeared at a press conference held on the night of April 24, 2009 accompanied by his attorney, and apologized for his misbehavior. “As an adult, my actions were embarrassing.” “I drank too much, to the extent that I was out of control. I regret my actions very much.” Prosecutors decided not to indict Kusanagi because of his apology and the embarrassment resulting from the incident.

For his actions, he was taken off the campaign for Japan’s transition to digital television in 2011, but was reinstated after a request from Kusanagi to do so, as well as promising to shoot the commercials for free.

This affair is very memorable for Japanese people, and his quote “what’s wrong with being naked ?” got the second place of 2009 net-buzzword contest in that December^[4].

Because of this background, especially on the internet, the momentum to make him to a subject of mockeries is always higher than any other celebrities among silly Japanese people such as 2channel users and NND users.

Spread

Online Popularity

This commercial was uploaded to YouTube on October 22nd, 2010. Though it didn’t get the nationwidely attention, some internet users always seeking funny and silly topics were fascinated by his highly comical dancing and its impressive song. And its parodies, remixes and MADs became being made gradually by them around the end of that month.

Then in January 2011, by the hits of several MAD videos, many MAD editors became choosing this commercial as a visual resource for their videos around New Year’s break. And the amount of MADs video started increasing rapidly.

As of May 2011, the number of videos related to this commercial is over 650^[5], and many of them are uploaded to YouTube^[6].

This fad on the internet is described in Nico Nico Pedia, an internet encylcopedia in NND^[7].

Notable Examples

MADs

for more videos, check out the videos section.

Illustrations

Search Interest

External References

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