The [email protected] girls in all their iterations have been subject to all kinds of ad campaigns and collaborations over the years. However, none of been so absolutely terrifying as this The [email protected] Million Live! Theater Days tie up promotion with Snickers which features all the [email protected] girls illustrated by horror manga godfather Kazuo Umezu. There’s an interactive element behind the campaign; You need to ‘save’ the girls from looking like they’ve been possessed by buying snickers, tweeting a picture of the full bar and the name of the idol you’re trying to save to the @sni_rep account. Twice a week, whichever idol gets tweeted the most gets ‘saved’. Fans may even received thank you tweets and voice messages from the girls, if they’re lucky and/or buy enough snickers.
We can’t commend whichever advertising executive came up with this one enough. The campaign is very left field but it looks like it’ll be a lot of fun for fans of the I[email protected] franchise. Plus, we get a lot of really neat art from Kazuo Umezu, a name that’s synonymous with horror in Japan. In the states, Junji Ito reigns as the most popular horror manga creator and illustrator, but his work can directly be traced back to Umezu. Actually, Kazuo Umezu’s seminal Drifting Classroom will receive a reprint in the States soon, so if you’re interested in the roots of horror manga, you have your chance to go in.
As for Bandai Namco’s giant [email protected] franchise, it just keeps chugging along. The original incarnation was an arcade game back in 2005, the series still goes strong today. Now there’s myriad anime, games, live concerts, exclusive merchandise, and more based around the series. A few years back [email protected] changed the game by introducing Side M, a sub-franchsie filled with nothing but pretty boys.
For now, only the girls get to eat snickers and be illustrated by the incredible Umezu. You can keep track of who gets saved here!