Legendary performer now has a new song about combining some other forbidden things.
It’s been a while since we last saw Piko Taro, the leopard-print loving persona of Japanese entertainer Kazuhito Kosaka who took the world by storm with his viral global hit “Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen”. Wherever he’s been hiding, it seems he hasn’t lost his love of combining things, because now he’s back on the scene with a new video encouraging us to stir chocolate biscuits into tubs of ice cream.
For this outing, the star is bringing his signature dance moves and whacky personality to Japanese confectionery giant Meiji for its new “Kinotake Gururi” summer campaign. The campaign brings many things together, starting with two Meiji chocolate cookies that have enjoyed a longstanding rivalry, Kinoko no Yama (literately “Mushroom Mountain) and Takenoko no Sato (“Bamboo Shoot Village”). Fans tend to get great pleasure out of siding with one of these chocolate cookies against the other, so much so that they even cast votes in a politically-inspired popularity election, but Piko Taro is encouraging unity between parties by encouraging fans to combine the treats with Meiji’s Essel Super Cup ice cream.
For the campaign, Piko Taro isn’t just combining sweets, he’s combining names as well, bringing Kinoko no Yama and Takenoko no Sato together with the word “Kinotake”, and using it to inspire an original song titled “Guruguru Majemaje” (“Round and Round, Mix Mix”).
Written and composed by Piko Taro, it’s also being performed by him as well, in a crazy new commercial that showcases the same surreal humour that made him an Internet sensation nearly a decade ago. The ad features retro video game-style visuals alongside multiple versions of the performer, including one where he wears a giant mushroom-shaped hairstyle inspired by Kinoko no Yama…
▼ … and another with a bamboo shoot-inspired look based on Takenoko no Sato.
▼ Take a look at the new video below.
After filming the commercial, Piko Taro revealed that the melody for the song had actually been sitting unused in his drafts for four years before finally finding a home in the campaign. One of the track’s catchiest phrases, “majemaje“, actually came about by accident after he stumbled over the pronunciation of “mazemaze” (“mix mix”) during recording. Rather than rerecording it, he decided to keep the mistake after seeing it made his five-year-old daughter laugh, and now it’s one of the most memorable phrases of the campaign.
According to Meiji, the act of mixing chocolate cookies and ice cream together couldn’t be simpler – just choose your favourite cookie flavours and “mazemaze” them into a Super Cup. With a number of different flavours on the market, more than 7,905 possible combinations are said to await your taste buds, and the company has provided some suggestions to get you started.
▼ “Matcha Mint“
▼ “Berry Cute“
▼ “Chocolate Mountain”
▼ The ultimate combination is said to be the “All In One”, which brings everything together for a treat that transcends factions.
With so many combinations to choose from, it looks like we’ll be enjoying a very Guruguru Majemaje summer. Whether it catches on to become the next big viral food trend, well, that’s up to the public to decide, but with Piko Taro on board for the shenanigans, anything is possible.
Source, images: Press release
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