Research - cute aesthetics and the empathic effect of kawaii in Japanese commercials

Yuru-kyara and mascot characters: cute aesthetics and the empathic effect of kawaii in Japanese commercials
Faculty of Humanities - University of Copenhagen MA Cognition and Communication
Simone Wong Yum Mei
Cognition and Audio-visual Communication

Cute studies in western academia have emerged in more recent years as a response to the blooming its popularity in digital media. Scholars have described cuteness as a growing rise of public presence that is becoming a ‘dominant aesthetic of the digital culture and consumer culture of the current century’ (Dale, 2012). With its rising popularity in new media and internet culture, there has been an emerging interest exploring cute media in recent years within fields of cultural studies, evolutionary economics, media anthropology and film studies (Lobato and Meese, 2014).

Decaur (2012) discussed the idea that kawaii culture ‘idolises childishness because childhood is viewed as a time of freedom, and this individual freedom is seen as unattainable for adults in Japanese society.

Animation and illustration aesthetics of Japan, compared to Western style animation films, comics and cartoon, has had a longer and much richer history of in cooperating cuteness to their work. The development of manga (visual comic arts) has an historical effect on cute aesthetics in Japan. Manga could be dated back to early Edo period (1603-1867) where mass production of illustrated books and prints were developed with woodblock techniques; commercial success eventually led to ubiquity of manga in Sho-wa period (1926-1989) and until now as part of everyday life for Japanese people. Cheok (2012) described the effect of cuteness depicted in manga on the

2

Japanese generation as ‘...conveying human emotions in their basic form, swooning to visible excitement, unabashed embarrassment to hopping madness. Personal characteristics that are cute, which the generations associate themselves with, developing their individual selves to potray some, if not all, of these cute qualities in varying degree of appropriateness...’ (Cheok, 2012). Kawaii emerged as pop culture in the 1970’s and became an integral part of Japanese culture, as Cheok described ‘Japan’s susceptibility towards childish tastes and the shelter and safety those tastes offer’.

Affective reaction towards cute stimuli. Dale (2012) proposed that the ‘aww’ factor of cute objects is to ‘participate in a performtive act that expresses affinitiy’. Joel Gn presented three intersecting domains of cuteness – affect, language and design; affect being what the object communicates, language being the ‘shared vocabulary’ of this communication, which depends on how much the object conform to a set of characteristics; in which the design of the cute object allows ‘rearrangement’ of the shared vocabulary, enabling the ‘production of new iterations of cuteness’. An effective depiction of cuteness hereby require conformity of certain rules or requirements for it to be perceived as cute, but may also benefit from new ways to experience the cute affect; this may encourages designers to expand such aesthetic (Dale, 2012).
Cute aesthetics – Colour and shape. Ohkura (2011) proposed that existence of ‘kawaii characters’ with their highly sensitive techniques contributed to the large export surpluses of Japanese games, cartoons and animations (Ohkura referred to the term ‘digital content’). Defining kawaii as ‘an emotional value of Japanese origin’, and conveying ‘positive meanings such as cute, lovable and small’, Ohkura conducted a systematic analysis of kawaii artificial products to clarify the method to construct kawaii products and explore attributes such as shapes, colours, textures and materials. In general, when asked to pick the most kawaii combination of colour and shape, rounded shapes and warmer colours were preferred by Japanese participants Ohkura (2008). Curved shapes like spheres are generally evaluated in experients to be cuter than straight-lined shapes. In addition, they found brightness and saturation of a colour to be effective in inducing feelings of kawaii.
Effects and functions of cute aesthetics in media. Nittono (2016) discussed the positive effects of viewing kawaii. Studies that look at how infant faces capture attention at early visual processing (Brosch et al., 2007, as cited in Nittono, 2016); on the other hand, viewing duration of cute pictures have been found to be longer than less cute ones; this finding is consistent across studies and extend beyond human babies stimulus and also on other cute objects. Viewing pictures of human and animal infants have been found to elicit positive feelings and increase facial muscle activity in relation to smiling (Nittono and Tanaka, 2010, as cited in Nittono, 2016). Nittono et al. (2012) showed that looking at pictures of baby animals can increase carefulness and

3

narrow focus of attention; as cuteness is associated with pro-social approach motivations, this can also affect task performance subsequently (Nittono, 2016).
Cheok (2010) discussed the functions of kawaii and cute aesthetics in interactive media. For example, virtual characters often moves with a friendly demeanour and are presented with a youthful, exciting personality, which are selected elements by designers to establish a ‘micro-relationship an impart positive feelings’ to the audience. Cheok suggested that by using cute aesthetics in virtual characters, designers may motivate and inform users or viewers to act a certain way. By engaging viewers in a way that reduces negative feelings and turn unappealing information into more acceptable ones, cuteness in media ‘brings the user (or viewer) to a desired frame or mind and attitude, then delivers content that might not otherwise be received’ (Cheok, 2010). Therefore when considering the use of cute aesthetics in commercials, it is not only important to consider the narrative style in explaining the products or services advertised, but also the emotional states that may be elicited by cute aesthetics that help the audience engage easier in what ever product or services or ideas they are being introduced. In the current case, cute aesthetics used in mascot characters may not only elicit general positive emotions; due to its human-like features, viewers may be prompted with approach motivation, encouraged to interact and know more about them. This is therefore useful when used in commercials, where such positive emotions may be converted into purchasing decisions.