“Lost in Translation” was a wonderful movie by Sofia Coppola, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. It depicted the delicious confusion of Western tourists in total Japanese cultural emersion. In particular, the scenes where Bill Murray shoots a liquor commercial for the Japanese market are simply priceless. In retrospect, I see where Ms. Coppola got her ideas. Her cousin, Nicholas Cage, have been making wonderfully odd (to our sensibilities) commercials for years. He clearly had stories to share. Here are a few of his gems, courtesy the World Wide Web: and But it’s not only Japan that surprises our/my cultural biases. This morning, my husband and I went to a local grocery store in Rome, Italy. In the cheese section, there was a little paper bottle of parmesan cheese with a mouse of the package. The mouse didn’t work for me at all! So much for cultural differences. Here’s a small collection of ads for McDonalds from all over the world. Please compare it to the packaging and menus for this restaurant chain that I’ve posted here in the past: “Cultural World Domination”. Notice all of the anchoring errors, metaphor mistakes, cultural biases, mirroring errors, and general cognitive and cultural…
Tag Archive for culturally-resonant
Conceptual Design, Contributor, Cultural Differences, Interaction Design, Interface Design
Dating by blood type in Japan
by Roman Shumikhin •
Buerk, R. (2010). “Dating by blood type in Japan.” BBC News. Retrieved on 3 October, 2010: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8646236.stm People in most parts of the world do not think about their blood group much, unless they have an operation or an accident and need a transfusion. But in Japan, whether someone is A, B, O or AB is a topic of everyday conversation. There is a widespread belief that blood type determines personality, with implications for life, work and love. Interest in blood type is widespread in Japan, particularly which combinations are best for romance. Women’s magazines run scores of articles on the subject, which has also inspired best-selling self-help books. There are employers who are discriminating against prospective candidates by asking about their blood type. A term for such behavior in Japan is burahara, which translates as blood group harassment. The preoccupation with blood ultimately dates back to theories of eugenics during the inter-war years. Stripped of its racial overtones, the idea emerged again in the 1970s. Now, blood typecasting is as common as horoscopes in the West, with the whiff of science—although dubious—giving it added credibility. Scientists regularly debunk the blood group theory but it retains its hold—some believe because,…