Monday, December 28, 2009

Looking deeply into condoms in Japan

As we are now reaching those slightly stale and awkward days between Christmas and New Year's when you don't really know what to do with all that celebratory atmosphere you built up to for Christmas and hope to maintain the momentum until the New Year's eve, I can't really be bothered to maintain my regular sharp analysis of Japan current affairs and politics.

So, instead I thought I should let you all readers know of the wonders of the Japanese condom market and one particular player with significant share; Okamoto Condoms and their animal condom series (what? I don't have any real source for it but I googled it and someone somewhere on the Internet said it so it's good enough for me!). I'm not going to get into the whole Japanese condom sizes vs. those regularly sold in the western markets, but I think it's pretty uncontroversial to say that the standard Japanese sizes are a bit smaller than the specs of those targeted for the western markets.

But, as in any market, there are niches to fill for those who do not fit into the standard norm and Okamoto does not shy away from this. For those with larger appendixes requiring larger condoms, they have the "Super Big Boy" condom (see the picture below). Note how the key visual to illustrate this is a horse...

I've seen the above brand around for quite a long time, but earlier today by chance I happened to see their newest addition to the family...The "Mega Big Boy"! For those for whom not even the Super Big Boy is enough and if the name isn't enough they have chose to use an image of an elephant as the key visual...

But if you have been blessed with a slightly smaller and perhaps more convenient size of penis where even the standard sizes prove to be a bit too large, what do you do then? Fear not, Okamoto has thought of you too and launched the "Smart Boy" just for you and the key visual is an... ... ... eagle...?

I can see the connection between Horse - Large penis and Elephant - Really Large PENIS but I fail to see the connection between an eagle and a smaller penis and I'm still trying to figure out what's smart about having a small penis?

10 comments:

aimlesswanderer said...

Hmm, I can only guess (not having investigated this myself) that horses are, err, more well endowed compared to humans, and elephants even more so. Maybe it's also a size thing, as in a horse is larger than a human, and an elephant larger still. Maybe next is one with a whale picture?

My guess is that the eagle, being much smaller comparatively, is proportionally less well endowed.

I wonder what kind of research (if any) went into these decisions? It would have been a bit embarrassing to be looking up that info...

JJ said...

I saw one from the same brand of a large fist gloved in leather. It wasn't sexy at all, quite frightening actually, unless you're into s/m and bondage stuff I guess.

The eagle doesn't fit size wise, so I assume it has some message of with power/dominance. Or maybe it's geared towards Americans, who knows.

ThePenguin said...

Maybe the last example is meant for export to the Indian market?

Mr. Salaryman said...

Aimless - Well, from a first hand experience I can tell you that you don't want to mess with a horses penis and whatever you do, don't go near an elephant one... I've been "lucky" enough to see an elephant with a hardon at a zoo and it was at least the size of a grown man's thigh in thickness.. An eagle I have no clue...

JJ - Well, maybe that brand tried to target the S/M crowd or something? Targetting americans with a smaller size condom would seem a bit odd...

Penguin - Well, aren't you a SMART BOY (Salaryman high fives everyone around him)

aimlesswanderer said...

Hmm, "first hand experience" hey, I hope that it wasn't literally so. That would be just wrong on so many levels....

Mr. Salaryman said...

Aimless- I plead the fifth here

aimlesswanderer said...

Hang on, neither us is American, and neither of us is in America, so how can you do that?

Foggia said...

It's all marketing.
Eagle is just some ego-saving. You know there's not much relation to regular penis-oriented imagery, so people will not get reluctant in buying it (like a mouse would do).

An eagle's tool has to be kinda small, but it's sharp on attack. Smart, let's say. All on the "method is more important than size" thingy.

Anonymous said...

Japanese have a belief that people with smaller penises have higher intelligence. There is unspoken racism towards black people as being better endowed but less intelligent. Their perception is Eagles are smart. So you have a small penis, but you're a brilliant nerd.

Mike said...

they have some strange associations with sex in Japan, IMHO, so these are really no surprise

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