While most of the Western world is stuffing their bellies with turkey, in Japan people can’t get enough of Cup Noodles (and probably not only in Japan as its available in over 80 countries and regions). The worldwide-instant-noodle hit, Nissin Cup Noodles, launched in 1971 as an instant ramen packaged in a foam cup and is currently Japan’s No.1 brand of cup-type instant noodles. The product is so popular there, that it even has its own museum in country’s second largest city, Yokohama, and the CUPNOODLES Museum welcomed its five-millionth visitor earlier this year.
Now imagine you take these instant noodles that revolutionized food culture all over the world, you bring in definitely one of the strongest symbols in Japanese culture and make them perform 7 extreme sports like surfing, skiing (with katanas!), pogo, slackline walking, and freestyle football, while ‘nailing’ exquisite tricks along the way – that truly creates a strong impression. If you don’t know who are we talking about, it’s the ‘samurais‘ – legendary warriors and perhaps the most well-known class of people of ancient Japan.
This crazy combination of these noble fighters, who fought evil with their signature swords and impressive armour, and adrenaline makes up a powerful combination bursting with energy. The by-watchers are put in awe as the 7 samurais embark on their transcendence performances. The warriors hold an unwritten samurai code of conduct, also known as Bushido, which makes them put loyalty, courage, veracity, compassion, and honor above all else. So, we can understand why the global Cup Noodle producer Nissin Foods decided to implement these values in a campaign fittingly labelled “Crazy Makes the Future”.
The global CM (which is apparentely Japanese way of saying commercial) for the 2016-2017 season, that stars 7 gurus of each sport (including a world champion), takes off in Brazil, Japan, India, and will continue to expand in Indonesia, and other countries, such as Singapore.
This is not the first-time Nissin used fierce protectors donning their full armour. In the 2015 campaign, the warriors take on the most successful football nation, Brazil, in doing some footie trickery – namely Red Bull Street Style 2012 World Champion, Kotaro Tokuda.
Back in 2014, the Red Samurai embarked on a mission to bring the samurai spirit to Manchester United FC, and some ninjas trying to sabotage his mission filmed on one of the most sacred grounds in world football, Old Trafford. Together they performed some ‘footie’ trickery in front of the home crowd and promoted the noodle brand’s “Hungry to Win” campaign. The brand also perfomerd a prank on some of the Red Devil’s fans by placing a ringing smart-phone in various locations, to find out if “anyone is courageous enough to pick up a ringing phone and answer it”.
The samurai-themed campaign also took us to New York, where we can see one of the stars of world tennis, Kei Nishikori, return the yellow fuzzy balls with a (fortunately wooden) samurai long-sword.
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