By Emiko Jozuka, CNN Business
Updated 8:02 PM ET, Sat August 1, 2020
Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.
In the 1989 US blockbuster “Back to the Future II,” time traveler Marty McFly orders a Pepsi Perfect at Hill Valley’s futuristic Cafe 80s. It was an iconic moment of product placement.
But if you look very closely at a different scene showing future McFly as he video-conferences a co-worker in 2015, another brand makes a cameo appearance.
That drink was called Pocari Sweat.And despite its name unappetizing to native English speakers it’s a well-known Japanese sports drink across Asia and the Middle East.
Though the film’s creators didn’t have a product placement deal with Pocari Sweat, they had given their art department a general directive to include Japanese elements in the scenes depicting 2015, says Bob Gale, the producer and writer of “Back to the Future II.”
“In the late ’80s, Japanese companies were buying a lot of American companies, notably Sony purchasing Columbia Pictures and Panasonic buying Universal. Japanese video games were the market leaders, Japanese cars were outselling American cars, and we thought this trend would continue well into the future,” says Gale.
The Japanese powerhouse of the ’80s didn’t last, but Pocari went on to become a force in the sports beverage market.
Last year, 270 million bottles were distributed across more than 20 countries and regions. Around the same numberwere distributed in Japan, according to Otsuka Pharmaceutical, the Japanese company that makes it. Amid the pandemic, the company donated more than 1.2 million bottles to hospitals and governments across its markets.
Launched in 1980, Pocari Sweat was inspired by the rehydrating effects of an IV solution. The ingredients include water, sugar, citric acid, magnesium, calcium and sodium. Pocari replenishes water and electrolytes a set of minerals your body needs to function lost through sweat.
The beverage is to many Asians what Gatorade is to Americans, and Lucozade is to the British.
But, the brand, which turns 40 this year, is virtually unheard of in the West.
A drink that mimics sweat
Pocari’s story starts with Rokuro Harima, an Otsuka employee who got food poisoning during a business trip to Mexico in the 1970s.
At hospital, doctors told Harima to replenish his energy with fizzy soda drinks. But when Harima spotted a doctor drinking from a pouch of IV solution to rehydrate himself after performing surgery, he had an idea.
- Pocari Sweat is launched in Japan.
- Otsuka starts exporting Pocari Sweat to its first overseas markets in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
- Pocari Sweat becomes the first non-alcoholic drink in Japan to hit a cumulative shipment value of over $1 billion.
- Otsuka establishes a health beverage subsidiary in Mexico, the country that sparked the idea for Pocari Sweat.
Source: Otsuka Pharmaceuticalread more
