So, there’s been this disheartening ad campaign in Japan, that I won’t link to. Suffice to say that it used a long-standing ’spokesthing’, a monkey, in an ad touting “Change”. The monkey is dressed in a suit, making a ’speech’, in the midst of supporters. Was it a deliberate parody of Sen. Obama? I’m not sure that I believe the intent was racist, but the result was disturbing. I thought at first that it was a parody of the popular show about the travails of a young Japanese prime minister, played by one of those SMAP people. But, whether it was or not, whether the company meant the campaign to be racist or not, it’s at very least an insensitive piece that needed to be pulled (and actually shouldn’t have run in the first place).

A well-known performing artist here, Ms. Brenda Vaughn used her press contacts to call attention to the campaign, and excellent online resource Black Tokyo lit a fire under this, and helped lead to mainstream Western media coverage. Many thanks to them both, and all who spoke out and wrote letters on this issue.

FEW, otherwise known as Foreign Executive Women in Japan has remarkable meetings every month. One of the main reasons I have enjoyed them so much over the years is the audience: FEW members and friends are a diverse group of smart, experienced women, who always bring so much to the conversation. And the speakers I’ve seen have been uniformly thought-provoking.

(I’m not just saying that because I’ll be speaking at FEW this Thursday at 7:00pm at the FCCJ ; more information here . ahem… )

Modern Media Japan is gearing up to be FEW’s Media Sponsor and in May, I’m joining the Board as their Sponsorship Director - so this Thursday’s talk is a kind of launch event. I’ll be presenting our New Media Toolkit, which is an approach to creating your company’s/your own New Media strategy, the genesis of which came from my best friend, Lauren, and was reinforced by my experience at the Tokyo Small Business Meetup

If you’re a member or an aspiring member or a guest of a member of FEW, I do hope to see you there!

photo credit: Petra (FEW)