How To Lose $5 Million In 5 Hours
I think many of us have had bad days or bad nights, but chances are we haven't lost $5 in about 5 hours. That is the amount of money that Japanese pop singer and television personality Tsuyoshi Kusanagi lost in endorsements when cops found him drunk and sitting naked in a Tokyo park.
Unlike here in the US, it appears that if you screw up in Japan, you lose all your deals, very very quickly. Shortly after the news broke, Kusanagi had lost all of his endorsement deals including those with Toyota and Procter & Gamble.
Oh, and it gets even better. The Japanese government had just signed him for a very expensive public information advertising campaign. Now, of course they don't want him and have to find someone else who doesn't like to take off his clothes and have a chat with nature.
Kusanagi made his fame as a member of the boy band SMAP, but has since become a very popular television personality. Everything he worked for just gone in an instant.
19 comments:
The US could definitely learn quite a bit from Japan. Like we didn't know this already though, right?
Except don't take financial advice from them, they are far worse off than America.
Awesome typo, Enty! LOL!
He's cute-come to America
where bad boys are truly appreciated.
Most of his promotion (and therefore fan base and endorsements) revolves around his squeaky-clean image and those of his former band and bandmates.
Being found drunk and even belligerent might have been survivable, but drunk, belligerent and naked in a public park...
Yet Paris Hilton & Lindsey Lohan continue to hawk product lines her. Go figure!
Mooshki, I saw the typo, too - LOL.
Anyhoo - what an IDIOT. Let's see what kind of job he can get now.
Maybe it was a ploy on his part. Ruin your career in Japan, get noticed in the U.S., move there and get even more attention and money due to your "bad/crazy boy" image. It's called "The road to fortune and fame 101." :-)
What a shame to lose so much for stupidity.
Even if this is considered a major scandal in Japan, it's pretty small here, no? If the public drunken nudity also involved illicit sex or head-shaving, then it'd raise eyebrows. Seriously -- celebs around here parade around drunk and mostly naked on a regular basis.
An Asian band was caught with pot in their country, and they were banned from entering the country. They lost a lot of money because they were huge over there, and they were not allowed to perform or sell CDs.
Meh. He was my least favorite member of SMAP.
Now, if Katori Shingo was found naked in a Tokyo Park, I am sure the girls would go crazayy! Not to mention Kimura Takuya.
oooh, i love me some SMAP. They are so bad.
I'm with MaggieMei! Love Shingo.
The system over there is different for entertainers, its kind of like the studio system of old, except the performers belong to a talent company who keeps them on a salary and pimps them out to any TV/radio station etc. This guy was worked to the bone when I lived there, he was on everything! Probably glad for a break...
Someone help me out here - wasn't there a scandal in Japan involving a young woman, who was the star of something, in a porn video her boyfriend took? She lost everything, too.
No Hong Kong. Actor Nicholas Tse took a broken computer in to be fixed and they found a bunch of pics of him banging a who's who of HK starlets, including one who was about to be married and had a squeaky clean image. Was a HUGE scandal in HK.
Sorry, but all I keep wondering is just how BAD did he look naked? Obviously, it wasn't working for him.
Thanks Andy, I couldn't remember the details. Wasn't there video, not just pics?
Yay Leonie! Shingo is the best!
And I agree that those guys are worked to the bone (hee) in Japan. They pop up everywhere on TV. I would think that some of that over-exposure brought on this incident.
Well since he has a bit of free time on his hands I know a few parks around the US that I would love to take him and commune with nature :) Poor guy though! Matthew Mcwhatshisname gets to play naked bongo's and cutie pie Japanese boy can't be drunk and naked in the park? He should at least move to Europe!
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