Tokyo Tales: "Hitachi: Proofread the Next"

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November 11, 2001

"Hitachi: Proofread the Next"

Hitachi's current tagline:

Hitachi: Inspire the Next

Inspire the next? The next what? The next generation of ad agency slogan generators who can't bear to have a native speaker check over their prose before it goes live? Honestly. Anyone would think this was *Japan* or something... oh. Right.

Posted by chris at November 11, 2001 12:18 AM | Permalink

Comments

Inspire the next? The next what?

I was one of the judges who actually rejected that slogan, Inspire the next. It was part of a fake contest for Hitachi employees to suggest a new engrish slogan. It turned out that the ad agency, Dentsu, had already created an "Inspire the next" campaign and the contest was held so employees would "buy into" to new slogan.

After I rejected the slogan and it was picked anyway, I had such hissy fit about the engrish that the only way they could shut me up was to tell me the truth. A grand-nephew of a former Hitachi president had to "win" the contest to pay for his soap jobs or something vital.

Still, I enjoy Hitachi Happy Tree song even though it ends with Inspire the next.

Read more about the song, see the video and download the MP3 at my website:

http://doiop.com/Hitachi_song

Posted by: Taro at news.3yen.com at January 29, 2007 04:15 PM

Heh - very cool. Thanks for dropping by, Taro.

Posted by: chris at January 30, 2007 12:20 AM