Docomo and Kat-tun
Hardly any Japanese text on this ad at all huh? Just some random boy band!
Here we are… Some language. Lower right corner, in the shadow if you didn’t notice.
Ad Text in Japanese:
[Tiny text down there in the corner]
もっともっと、いいケータイへ。
mottomotto, ii keitai he.
Translation:
Literal translation:
To a better better keitai.
Harvey translation:
To an even better keitai.
Grammar & Vocab points:
「もっともっと」
「もっと」simply means “more” in Japanese, however you can say it twice in a row (or ever 3 or 4 times if you’re hyper) to emphasize it.
いいケータイへ
「いい」means good. 「ケータイ」 is 「携帯」 (keitai) in Katakana. This is short for 「携帯電話」 which means portable phone. In Japan people use the word 「携帯」 (keitai) to refer to a cell phone now. The question is, why is it written in Katakana, and not Kanji. Simply put, it’s just for style. Japanese is interesting in that you can write the same thing in Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji many times. Which way is used is up to the writer.
For example, the word 「ともだち」 (tomodachi) for “friend” is often written with only the kanji for ‘tomo’, as 「友だち」, but it can also be written with both Kanji, as 「友達」. Either way is fine. I have even seen it written only in Hiragana.
Likewise, the “manly” way to say “I”, 「おれ」is often written in Katakana, or Kanji. 「オレ」, 「俺」writers can pick how they write words and use it to add to their particular writing style.
The final 「へ」in this sentence is another point. In written Japanese sometimes it is possible to leave the verb out of a sentence. This is often done in newspaper headlines. Perhaps it is to save space, perhaps it is to sound intelligent, maybe both.
The particle 「へ」 is usually used to show “direction”. As in, 「私は公園へ行く」watashiha kouen e iku. I go to the park. So, when the へ is left off in this headline, one is able to understand that it means “To a better keitai”. The verb that has been left off could be a few things, but is likely 「行く」, I could also imagine it being 「向かう」 or 「進む」as well though.
On a cultural note, the people in this advertisement are the poplar Johnny’s band “Kat-tun”. There is a wikipedia entry for Kat-tun, and the official Kat-tun website is here.
Japan loves putting popular musicians on their advertisements. I’m sure there will be many more on this site coming up!
- Harvey
Posted: December 22nd, 2006 under Poster Ad.
Comments: 13
Comments
Comment from harvey
Time: December 22, 2006, 6:32 pm
Hey, I heard from some people that they cannot see the images in this site via IE… But it looks okay in Firefox and Safari.
Anyone else having trouble seeing the images in IE?
Comment from Cue
Time: December 23, 2006, 12:48 am
Hello again, Harvey.
When I clicked the “poster ads” under “Categories” at top right, I wasn’t able to see any images either. (And I’m an IE 6 user.)
But after I clicked the title(or the link to) “Docomo and Kat-tun”, I can see it now.
About writing the same word in various ways, I think younger people tend to use more Katakana than Kanji. 
Comment from Tadashi
Time: December 23, 2006, 8:56 am
Hmm, I just noticed AdBlock Plus doesn’t like the site since it contains “ads” and simply blocks all pictures. Maybe that’s the problem with the IE?
I just made an exception rule to fix that for my Firefox.
Comment from harvey
Time: December 23, 2006, 2:32 pm
Thanks for the feedback guys.
I wonder what’s going on with the IE stuff with this theme…
Everyone. Switch to Firefox! Now is the time!
I think you’re right on the youth thing Cue, and I think it’s because young Japanese are forgetting how to write kanji if they cannot rely on their Keitai to automatically search it out for them!
Thanks for the headsup about AdBlock Tadashi. Do you think that is because ads is in the URL? Or because the site title is Ads?
New site growing pains… gotta love em.
Comment from harvey
Time: December 23, 2006, 2:36 pm
Okay. So far it looks like this.
Firefox - OK
Safari - OK
IE7 - OK.
IE6 - OK.
IEv 6.0.2900.2180 - OK
IE5.2 Mac - No images or text.
Can anyone verify this page with other browser types and tell me your results?
I wanna get to the bottom of this!
- Harvey
Comment from needles
Time: December 23, 2006, 7:23 pm
No ads when I click the archive. (I use Firefox by the way)
Comment from harvey
Time: December 23, 2006, 7:37 pm
Doh. Me too on the archive. Thanks for the tip.
Wow what’s goin on here!
Comment from Tadashi
Time: December 23, 2006, 10:10 pm
There are no ads in the archive because of the blog itself. It simply doesn’t link them. Maybe you should consider making short teasers for each ad and only show them and the analysis after following the link, like most articles on Kotaku.
It should also save you some bandwidth.
Comment from harvey
Time: December 23, 2006, 11:08 pm
Tadashi that’s a great idea! I think I might give that a try!
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