Snow Man Fans Unite: Protest Against Elia Ikeda Casting in New Mintia Commercial

Model and actress Eliza Ikeda became the new image character for Asahi Group Food’ Mintia” soft drink, and a new commercial began airing in early March, but fans of Snow Man, her predecessor, are expressing their displeasure.

 

The new TV commercials featuring Ikeda, “The feeling you want to be, feel free to be. Sky” and “The feeling you want to be, feel free to be. Light” will begin airing on March 7th. On March 11, Mintia’s official X (formerly Twitter) account announced a campaign in which 1,000 people in total will win Mintia & Mintia Breeze by drawing. In addition, double the number of entries by posting your thoughts on the commercial using the button below! This is a system whereby users can enter the campaign by posting their impressions of the new commercial along with the hashtag #I saw the new Mintia commercial.

Fans of Snow Man and fans of the former Johnny’s office (now SMILE-UP.) were outraged when they saw the #I saw the new Mintia commercial hashtag. This is because Snow Man once appeared in a Mintia commercial.

Snow Man became the new image character of Mintia in March 2022, and in the commercial, Snow Man dances to the new song Refresh. The Shunkan Mint Dancing was choreographed by Teru Iwamoto, a member of Snow Man. In 2023, they appeared in a Mintia commercial with their new commercial song POWEEEEER.

However, due to the scandal at Johnny’s office last year, the commercial contract with Snow Man was terminated. After that, we hired Eliza Ikeda, but the PR tag for the new commercial caused an uproar as some fans thought it was an allusion to Snow Man. (entertainment writer).

Last year, the contract between Snow Man and Asahi Side was terminated due to the late Johnny Kitagawa’s sexual assault scandal, which caused a huge uproar. After the agency acknowledged Johnny’s sexual assault at a press conference on September 7th, Asahi Group Holdings told the news site Sponichi Annex, In the future, there will be no advertisements featuring Johnny’s or new advertisements. We will not carry out any sales promotions.

In the meantime, a new commercial featuring Ikeda has recently been released,

[Claire] What’s with this fan-fueled shit tag?

 Couldn’t Asahi’s PR people have foreseen that this tag would cause a firestorm?
I have to admit, after seeing the new commercial, I feel sorry for SnowMan. They’ve contributed a lot of fans, and I can’t forgive them for cutting a deal with these guys who did nothing wrong.
I used to buy Mintia for the guesses in the commercials, but now I’m just going to switch back from Mintia to Frisk (a product of the Dutch company Perfetti van Melle).

The backlash was so loud that some fans started to ask, What’s the point of having a beer commercial?

In contrast, calm fans pointed out, “I understand the disappointment of the change in Mintia’s commercials, but to tweet complaints with the new commercial tag is too rude to the new image character, and It is not good to complain or make negative comments on Mintia’s new commercial tag. (Entertainment writer).

Meanwhile, regarding Asahi, actors Junichi Okada and Toma Ikuta are resurrected in the TV commercial for “Asahi Super Dry Raw Mug Can” (Asahi Beer). They also appeared in a commercial for the same product that began airing in March last year, making it a memorable work for the two of them as they co-starred in a commercial for the first time. On March 11th of this year, the X account of Asahi Beer posted a commercial video for Asahi Super Dry Raw Mug Can – Surprisingly Raw! while welcoming people with the message Thank you for waiting!

Okada and Ikuta each became independent from the former Johnny’s by the end of last November. Over this commercial for the raw jockey cans, fans who are supporting the office at all costs tagged #Goodbye Asahi on SNS and declared, I’ll never buy it again. Asahi started using it because Okada-kun and Toma quit the office. I don’t understand and it’s disgusting. I like Okada-kun and Toma-kun, but every time I see an Asahi commercial, it bothers me, they complain.

Are these expressions of sympathy by fans really doing the celebrities any favors?