Japanese toothpaste ad pulled after sound mistaken for national emergency alert

Ryan Robertson

A JAPANESE TOOTHPASTE COMMERCIAL WAS PULLED OFF THE AIR BECAUSE IT ACCIDENTALLY MADE PEOPLE THINK THEY WERE FACING A NATIONAL EMERGENCY.

LION CORPORATION, A MAJOR HOUSEHOLD GOODS MANUFACTURER, DEBUTED A COMMERCIAL FOR THEIR SYSTEMA GUM PLUS PREMIUM TOOTHPASTE. FOR A COUNTRY KNOWN FOR ITS QUIRKY, OFTEN BIZARRE COMMERCIALS, THIS AD SEEMED PRETTY TAME ON THE SURFACE.

BUT, IF YOU LISTEN CLOSELY TO THE SOUND EFFECT AT THE START, AS A QUESTION-MARK BUBBLE INFLATES OVER THE WOMAN’S HEAD, IT SOUNDS EERILY LIKE THIS.

THAT’S THE J-ALERT SYSTEM, JAPAN’S NATIONWIDE EMERGENCY WARNING ALERT, USED FOR SERIOUS THREATS LIKE NATURAL DISASTERS OR MISSILE ATTACKS. 

IT’S A SOUNDS NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR, BUT IF YOU LIVED IN JAPAN DURING 2017, WHEN NORTH KOREA’S KIM JONG-UN WAS LAUNCHING MISSILES LEFT AND RIGHT, YOU HEARD IT ENOUGH. 

YOU CAN IMAGINE, THE LAST THING A TOOTHPASTE AD WANTS TO DO IS CAUSE A NATIONWIDE PANIC. LION CORPORATION WAS QUICK TO ACT. BY THE SECOND DAY, THE AD WAS PULLED FROM BOTH TV AND THEIR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

IN A STATEMENT, LION SAID THEY WOULD RE-EDIT IT TO ENSURE IT NO LONGER SOUNDS LIKE THE END OF THE WORLD. 

WE’LL KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE NEW, LESS APOCALYPTIC VERSION OF THE AD. 

FOR SAN, I’M RYAN R