Ad Watch Vol.2: The Monhan

Round 2 of Ad Watch was born as I made my way to Capcom's Rockman Summer Festival event in Odaiba. Take a look at what I saw as I approached Shibuya Station from up Dougenzaka.

That's right! It's Cameron Diaz. Man... I can't stand Cameron Diaz. I despise her so much that even though I have a feeling I spelled her name wrong, I'm not going to check.

Unfortunately, Softbank decided to make her into its spokesperson, and now she appears in every single ad and billboard for the cell phone provider that I chose because they have a 980 yen per month plan. Thankfully, that doesn't include iPhone ads just yet (Softbank is currently the only provider for iPhone here).

Anyhow... below Cameron (that's right, even though I don't like her all that much, I refer to her by first name) is the subject of this second ever Ad Watch column:

Monster Hunter!

The ad says "PSP Domestic No.1 -- it's crossed 2.4 million!" and "It's about time you play Monhan." "Monhan" is, of course, short for Monster Hunter. The Japanese like to shorten pairs of words by combining first syllable of each word. I love this particular aspect of Japanese culture. The ladies go crazy when I refer to Starbucks in short form ("Staba"). And I always get a kick out of inviting those same ladies out to First Kitchen.

The three people in the ads are actual celebrities who can now be seen in the latest set of Portable 2nd G commercials. That's Rio Yamashita to the left, Emiri Henmi in the middle, and Haruka Minowa to the right (all women, in case you were wondering). The ad claims that they have play times of, respectively, 45 hours, 206 hours, and 232 hours.

I'd like to do something with Emiri Henmi for 206 hours (possible at First Kitchen) -- and let me tell you, it's got nothing to do with Monster Hunter. That's right, I'm a Phantasy Star Portable man myself.