Green Tea...

...wherever you look. After last year's success of Suntory with its deliberately old-style Iemon Brand, there has been a wave of new launches this spring. Kirin has redesigned its Namacha, Coca-Cola has introduced Hajime, and Asahi has come up with Wakamusha - the green tea for the "young warrior" pitched to young salarymen with samurai ads and this distinctly nostalgic looking five-page manga booklet as magazine advertising. Which one will be the first to disappear from the market? My bets are on Wakamusha - I cannot imagine anyone falling for advertising that simply gobbles together recent trends such as nostalgia towards the 1960s and 1970s and traditional Japan.