Is it typical in Japanese commercials to say (or sing) the brand name at the end, such as “Playstation” or “Hisamitu”?
Thanks to the ads, it is impossible for me to say that word without doing the weird voice.
Maybe I’m helpless when dealing with voices from Nintendo… our Wii Sport checks your weight and balance before you play, and this cute little voice says “measuring…”. It’s almost like a fairy who’s also a furry is having fun with it.
As a result, I can’t use a ruler or a tape measure without repeating it in the voice:
m e a s u r i n g . . .
(I could only find the setup in German, but this is cued up to an example of the voice)
Hisamitsu is the company name, not the product brand name (which I assume, if you’re in the US, is probably Salonpas). In the other example, PlayStation is the product and Sony is the company. I seem to remember in the past that some Sony product commercials would end with Sony but I don’t think I’ve seen any of those lately.
I see a lot of commercials as broadcast in Japan because we have TV Japan on in our house a lot (my husband is Japanese), and from that experience I would say that it is not particularly a pattern to place the product ID at the end, but it does happen, especially with the less straightforward commercials where you might not know what it was for if they don’t tell you (yes, they have those too). Especially the ones where some foreign (American) actor speaking to the Japanese audience in exotic American English is trying to sell coffee or cologne (case in point: Johnny Depp for Acqua di Gio).