カップヌードル | OBAKA's UNIVERSITY | 2016
Get Hit, Hit Back / Cup Noodle "OBAKA's UNIVERSITY: Terra Sachiko"
The first installment got pulled off air just one week after it sparked backlash online. But Nissin didn't stop there—two months later, they brought back Beat Takeshi and Sachiko Kobayashi for another round. Has any brand in Japanese advertising ever shown such a bold "fight back" attitude?
The problem
The age of social media is an unforgiving one. Take a risk and you get mocked; fail and you get attacked. The idea behind this campaign was to deliver a message about "the power to throw yourself into something and become a bit foolish" and "the power to pick yourself back up after failure"—without being preachy, but with the kind of humor that fits Cup Noodle. The first installment started airing on 3/30, 2016, but was pulled on 4/7. The appearance of Mari Yaguchi drew criticism.
The insight
Looking at the footage, it doesn't seem like this was something they threw together after the backlash—a series must have been planned from the very start. You can sense both the sadness of having the first installment shelved, and Nissin's resolve to "keep going" anyway. On top of the flow from "foolish" to "touching," they even added an ending that felt like something out of a canned coffee commercial. Seeing that, I just felt relieved: oh good, Nissin is still going to keep doing this.
The idea
At the Kobayashi Lab in the Mechanical Engineering Department of OBAKA's University, students are scrambling to build "Terra Sachiko," a giant costume even bigger than the previous "Mega Sachiko." Professor Kobayashi keeps rejecting the students' proposals, and as they grumble "This is impossible, right?" and "Can't she just sing normally?", University President (and statue) Takeshi steps in with one line: "If you don't go all out being foolish, the world won't change." Later, as Professor Kobayashi finishes the day's work and savors a cup of coffee in blissful peace, President Takeshi the statue sneaks up behind him, bops him on the head, and delivers the series' classic punchline while holding up a Cup Noodle: "This is a commercial for THAT, you idiot!"
What happened
It began airing on 5/26, 2016, produced by TYO. The series continued with installments like the 60-second version of "Spring Has Come to OBAKA's University!," "Sprint Toward Foolishness," and "Graduation Ceremony," before wrapping up with the Graduation Ceremony installment in 2017.
Afterthought
What I wanted was for them to go all the way with it. And Nissin really did go all the way. Even after the first installment sparked backlash and got pulled, they didn't bend on their original idea—they kept delivering the message "CRAZY MAKES the FUTURE." I love this kind of attitude. Not preachy, but genuinely serious about being foolish, again and again. That, to me, is the strength of a company like Nissin.
