Commercial from 1978 Channels Star Wars to Sell Canned Tuna
Following the success of Star Wars in 1977 it was only natural for overseas companies to pick up on this and utilize it to market their wares, especially in commercials. After all, who better to sell your product than a Wookie?
The item in question is Hagoromo, which in addition to being the name of a Japanese satellite, a play and a former soccer club, is apparently canned tuna. A quick run through Google translate confirms this, revealing the title to be “Canned tuna is also about.” Throughout the shrill vocals and peppy seventies music that plagues my nightmares, you can vaguely make out the phrase “sea chicken.”
The beauty of the video, however, lies not in the horrible music, but the absolutely dreadful depictions of Star Wars characters. Princess Leia looks like a mime; Han Solo looks like Robin Hood; Chewbacca jumps up and down like an ape; and C-3PO is simply a man wearing a gold costume made out of fabric. Bonus: they’re all American.
While I’m still unaware as to what is actually happening in the video, this is what I have come up with: Interspersed with photographs of the item, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and Luke Skywalker are all having a nice conversation surrounded by various Star Wars characters. Suddenly, Darth Vader appears!
Naturally, this upsets Chewbacca, who starts jumping up and down. Just as Luke and Vader are about to have plastic light saber duel, C-3PO scurries in with a plate of delicious Hagoromo and saves the day.
All I learned from this video is that Japanese commercials in 1978 were freakin’ weird.
By Lycurgus on 20-03-2010
