The Advantage of Using Caucasian Models in Japanese Advertisements

In Japan, advantages of using Caucasian models have been an accepted notion for a long time. Indeed, Caucasian models are often used in various Japanese advertisements. With the advances of globalization in economy and corporate activities, the boundary of domestic and foreign enterprises in the Japanese markets is becoming vague. Also, the attitude towards foreigners and foreign companies are changing. In spite these changes, reports state that today's Japanese advertisements still contains many Caucasian models. In this study, the advertising effectiveness of Japanese models and Caucasian models was reexamined considering the change in the international business environment in Japan. Furthermore, the validity of today's advertising making based on the Caucasian model supremacy hypothesis in Japan was considered. In this study, first we examined whether if there was a difference in the reading method and the accuracy of memories for the ads. Second, the difference in the psychologically effects such as buying intentions and impressions to the ads and the commodities we viewed. The experiment was conducted with a pen-tablet device and a survey by a questionnaire. The results indicated that when the attractiveness of Caucasian and Japanese models was the same, there was no advantage using Caucasian models in cognitive aspects. Also using Caucasian or Japanese models made no difference in the rate of first attention to the face in the ads, or in the relationship between the distance from face image to the name of the commodity and the accuracy of remembering it. On the other hand, we found some advantages of using Caucasian models in psychological aspects, particularly in high-involvement commodities but barely in low-involvement commodities. The results indicate that we have to consider both sides of cognitive and psychological aspects of advantages in using Caucasian models in today's advertisements.