Content area
Full Text
LURED by million-dollar contracts and guarantees that theiraudiences at home will never see them, scores of celebrities fromaround the world are appearing in Japanese advertisements. Australian heartthrob Mel Gibson can be seen guzzling Asahi beer. Stevie Wonder plays keyboards for TDK audio tapes. Bassist Ron Carter trundles his fiddle across a New York street for Suntory whisky. Sean Connery ponders mealtime in a plush living room and confides: "My heart with Ito ham."
Even shy Woody Allen, who wouldn't attend the Academy Award presentations for his own Oscar, was seen on posters three years ago in a promotion for a leading Tokyo department store.
Liquor ads are especially lucrative.