Japan's Tissue Pack Marketing

Above, examples of tissue packs I received in Japan. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

At the end of Lost In Translation, following the final goodbye embrace between Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson, some women can be seen handing out tissue packs to people as Johansson walks away from the camera.

Ever wondered why this form of advertising/marketing is popular in Japan? GaijinPot will answer that question for you in a new article they posted yesterday.

Over the years, I have accumulated a sizable number of these tissue packs (four examples are pictured above) and they have occasionally come in handy. Fortunately for me, I haven't had many head colds during the past few years.

It is recommended that visitors to Japan graciously accept these tissue packs as many public restrooms in Japan don't have toilet paper or paper towels (or so I have been told, as I have never run into this).

GaijinPot begins with:

Tissue pack marketing, when part-time workers on the sidewalk hand out packets of pocket tissues with a small advertisement on the bottom of the plastic wrapping, is a type of guerrilla marketing popular in Japan. 

The premise is simple. The pack of tissues is given to potential customers, who place it in their bag or pocket. By the time they have used the entire pack, the potential customer have inadvertently glanced at the advertisement a couple of times. The same person might just throw away a leaflet without reading it, since the leaflet offers nothing of immediate value. 

 To read more, go here.