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Kirin promotes new alcohol by filming rural people with pigeon-shaped drones… because they can

Master Blaster Sep 28, 2014
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Japanese brewery Kirin unveiled a new campaign for their Off White brand of imitation beer products known as happoshu. To help promote their cheaper beer substitute, Kirin will be dispatching six drones painted like pigeons to fly around and record the people of Taketa City in Oita Prefecture.

We can’t promise you we’ll succeed but we’re sure as heck going to try and find a link between drones, a rural community, and an alcoholic beverage produced to take advantage of a tax loophole.

■ Wha?

First here’s an overview of the Off White campaign. In the city of Taketa, Kirin constructed the Off White House, a quaint countryside home where the Po pigeon/drone family lives.

▼ Bro Po, Ma Po, Grandpa Po, Grandma Po, Pa Po, and Sis Po

Residents of Taketa are given a special smartphone app called POTLINE which they can use to contact the Po family. By calling up the pigeons people can arrange a time to meet when they will all fly out and find you with their attached cameras.

So, say Satoshi up the street is planning to deal with that pesky giant hornet’s nest out back once and for all. You can call up the Po’s and get them to come and record what’s sure to be a hell of a show. Then when it’s finished and Satoshi is discharged from the hospital, you can all head down to the Off White House and enjoy reliving the pain while knocking back some cold happoshu.

■ Why?

That explanation may have left you with more questions than answers, so let’s start with why Taketa City was chosen out of all the places in Japan. Recently the town has enacted the Rural Regression Proclamation which is a project aimed at rebuilding its population which has dwindled as younger generations moved away to urban centers.

Someone at Kirin took note of this and decided to help the small community grow to its former glory. Using one of the city’s vacant homes they established the Off White House as both a community center and house for their robot pigeons. Not being completely altruistic, Kirin also sees this as a great cross promotion for the “clean living” image they want for their Off White beverage.

Speaking of imagery, the pigeon theme was chosen to ease people’s tensions around the flying robots. Drones tend to get a bad rap in the media, often appearing next to words like “attack,” “kill,” and “Amazon.”

▼ “What?! ‘Flying killbot?’ No no, I’m just a widdle pidgeon wooking thwoo yo window.”

I’m not sure how many people will make the move to Taketa City because of this campaign. Kirin opening up a brewery or bottling plant would have probably helped the community’s deep-rooted problem more. Still, having a small fleet of drone copters available at your beck and call is a pretty nice incentive. If that alone doesn’t float your boat, the city also is known for their brown rice ice cream, giant daruma figures, and tomatoes.

Source: Taketa City, Kirin Off White via NetLab (Japanese)
Video Images: YouTube – KIRIN BEER