News
Manga Used to Sell Hair Coloring Products…for Men
posted on by Egan Loo
Not-So-Daily Link of the Day: Schwarzkopf & Henkel, a German-owned maker of hair care products, will use characters from Hiroshi Takahashi's Crows and Worst fighting manga to promote its 2008 Men's Fresh Light line of hair coloring products in Japan. The company already uses Takahashi's manga characters to promote its line of bleaching and darkening products (pictured at right). The new lineup will include more unusual colors: beige, ash, gray, blonde, khaki (greenish tint), and blood (reddish tint). The price for each color will be about 700 yen (US$6.00), and the new lineup will be launched on February 4.
The iconoclastic director Takashi Miike recently made a hit live-action prequel film for Crows, and Schwarzkopf & Henkel gave away posters signed by Takahashi and the film's star Shun Oguri (Hana Yori Dango, Hana-Kimi). In another campaign, the company held a drawing among the Men's Fresh Light buyers, and the winners had their names scrawled in the graffiti drawn in the Worst manga. Digital Manga Publishing released the first three volumes of the Worst manga in English in 2004. Most beauty products that have been tied to manga have been for women, such as The Rose of Versailles bath powder sets.
Source: Sankei Shimbun
Image © Hiroshi Takahashi (Monthly Shōnen Champion) 2002-2007
