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Meanwhile, in Japan: Puzzle game Candy Crush hires girl’s nails as advertising space

Fran W Mar 31, 2014
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Japan knows a thing or two about human billboards. And now, from the PR company that brought the world adverts stuck to girls’ thighs on the condition that the girls wear short skirts and knee-high socks, comes a brand new marketing idea: Candy Crush are sponsoring this girl’s fingernails, with a wacky, candy-based design that’s as bold and colourful as the game itself.

The lucky lady pictured above goes by the name of “Harutamu”, and you may recognise her as the girl whose extreme Coming-of-Age Day fashion we introduced in January this year. Harutamu belongs to a Tokyo-based group called Black Diamond, gyaru who tan their skin as dark as they can and love to wear wildly extravagant clothes, wigs, and – of course – fake nails.

Absolute Territory, the Japanese PR company behind this deal, made the news in 2012 when they began paying girls to paste adverts to their bodies. The company’s name refers to the idea of putting adverts in the area (or “territory” in Japanese) where people’s eyes naturally wander – namely, an exposed part of a pretty girl’s thigh. We’re pretty sure these nails will attract a bit of attention, too.

▼ Presumably, she got someone else to take this picture for her.

Announcing the sponsorship deal, Harutamu posts on Twitter how much she’s been looking forward to sharing this news with her fans. She also reveals that the collaboration with Candy Crush, the addictive puzzle game that took the world by storm late last year and has now been downloaded by half a million people, came about as a result of the popularity of those wild Coming-of-Age Day pictures.

▼ This photo of Harutamu’s Seijin-no-hi (Coming of Age Day) photo has been retweeted over 15,000 times.

Anyway, back to the nail art, which features jelly beans, hard candy, and those chocolate buttons with sprinkles that no-one ever knows what they’re called.

▼ The lengths some people will go to in order to get out of washing dishes...

Interestingly, Harutamu has ditched her regular bright-pink hair in the Candy Crush promotional photos. Maybe they were concerned it would distract from the giant plastic adverts hanging off her fingers.

▼ Here’s what she and her friends from Black Diamond usually look like. But whose company logo is that pink heart?

Black Diamond, whose 100-plus members come from 20 different countries, now have an English language Facebook page. They seem to be very proud of one of their group being the bearer of the world’s first nail sponsorship deal! It’s just a shame she won’t be able to actually play Candy Crush with nails like that.

Source: Kai-You
Top images: Kai-You Other images: @harutamatsu, via Twitter (1, 2, 3, 4)