Pocky vs Pepero and the battle for November 11th: Japan and South Korea.
In 1963 Osaka’s Eizaki Glico Confections Company (known at the time for its caramel candies) released “Pretz,” a butter-flavored pretzel stick-like snack. Three years later, they released a sweet version of Pretz called “Pocky,” a chocolate coated biscuit stick. The name “Pocky” was chosen for its similarity to the Japanese onomatopoeia “pokkin” which expresses long stick-like objects breaking or the sound Pocky makes when it’s eaten. Pretz would evolve to be sold in a variety of flavors like pizza, salad, and sweet corn, and Pocky would eventually come in almond, strawberry, green tea and many more flavors (the newest one is cookies and cream). While both Pocky and Pretz grew to be popular in Japan and around the world, Glico “overlooked” the South Korean market. That allowed the South Korean confectionary company Lotte to “develop” their own version of Pocky, the functionally identical “Pepero” in 1983. Glico considered bringing Lotte to court for trademark infringement, but Pocky’s not being on sale in South Korea (it didn’t go on sale there until 2013) permitted Lotte to defend “Pepero” as a product developed on its own without any inspiration from Pocky.
Around 1994, November 11th emerged as “Pepero Day” in South Korea. There are a number of stories about the origins of Pepero Day, but the most popular holds that two junior high school girls exchanged Pepero on November 11th in 1983 as a wish that they would both grow tall and thin like the Pepero. The 11/11 of November 11th was chosen as the date because of 1’s resemblance to the Pepero. From there Pepero Day evolved into a second Valentine’s Day in South Korea with people exchanging Pepero to show their affection for one another. Lotte cheered the holiday on and marketed to it. In 2009 Lotte reported that up to 65% of their 2008 Pepero sales occurred in the run up to and on Pepero Day1. By 2012 Lotte was earning 50% of its yearly revenue from Pepero products2.
Outraged that their “copycatting” rival was making such huge windfalls, Glico decided to introduce “Pocky & Pretz Day” (“Pokki & Puritsu no Hi,” more often just “Pocky Day” or “Pokki no Hi”) to Japan in 1999. The year 1999 was the 11th year that Japan’s Heisei Emperor, the present Emperor Akihito, had sat the throne giving November 11th of that year extra “1’s” and therefore, in Glico’s eyes, extra potency and auspiciousness. Glico has continued to market November 11th as Pocky Day every year since. It has even gotten the holiday registered as a “memorial day” with the Japan Anniversary Association3. In 2012 Glico rallied its fans to help it set the Guinness World Record for “Most mentions of a brand name on Twitter in a 24 hour period.” They set the record by garnering 1,843,7334 mentions that year and broke it the following year with 3,710,0445 mentions. Glico has also launched rockets, set up live streaming concerts and live concerts, and in 2013, sent Pocky to infiltrate the South Korean and promote Pocky Day there. On Pocky Day people in Japan eat, exchange and decorate Pocky, and play silly games like Jenga and the Pocky Kiss Game (picture the scene in Lady and the Tramp when both characters are eating the same spaghetti noodle) with it. Japan’s Pocky Day has not yet achieved the same level of success that Pepero Day has in South Korea, but if Glico keeps its ad campaigns up it’s only a matter of time before it does. The 2016 campaign is a world wide affair that lasts from November 2nd until January 31st and features dedicated and localized webpages, product tours, live streaming and live concerts and more. And America likes to complain that Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day were invented by Hallmark greeting cards!
Works cited:
1. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/11/123_55310.html
2. http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/11/11/on-pepero-day-a-japanese-rival-lurks/
3. http://www.kinenbi.gr.jp/yurai.php?MD=3&NM=222 (Japanese)
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20121120233831/http://life.oricon.co.jp/2018674
5. http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-mentions-of-a-brand-name-on-twitter-in-24-hours
Works consulted:
http://www.kinenbi.gr.jp/yurai.php?MD=3&NM=222 (Japanese)
http://www.glico.co.jp/info/kinenbi/1111.html (Japanese)
https://www.tofugu.com/japan/pocky-day/
http://pocky.glico.com/pockyday/en/start/
http://jpninfo.com/26964
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9D%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC (Japanese)
https://web.archive.org/web/20130517211655/http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0514/OSK201305140174.html#Contents (Japanese)
http://jjangippo.blogspot.jp/2015/11/kculture-pepero-day.html#
http://seoulsync.com/culture/current/happy-pepero-day-11-facts
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2014/11/511_167943.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/11/japan-and-south-korea-argue-over-a-chocolate-covered-pretzel-stick/
http://blogs.wsj.com/korearealtime/2013/11/11/on-pepero-day-a-japanese-rival-lurks/
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B1%9F%E5%B4%8E%E3%82%B0%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B3 (Japanese)
http://generasian.org/post/36170042945/what-is-pocky-day
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%9D%E3%83%83%E3%82%AD%E3%83%BC (Japanese)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%97%E3%83%AA%E3%83%83%E3%83%84 (Japanese)
https://www.tofugu.com/japan/pocky-day/
http://cuteinkorea.com/pepero-day/
http://terms.naver.com/entry.nhn?docId=68928&cid=43667&categoryId=43667 (Korean)
http://www.pocky.jp/
http://www.pocky.com/
Photo credits:
“11/11 Edition Pocky.” This Flickr image from user Yusuke Kawasaki is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/u-suke/8174507990 under the cc Attribution 2.0 license.
“A Pile of Pepero Boxes.” This Flickr image from user ~Mers is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/barnkim/1925951549 under the cc Attribution 2.0 license.
“Pocky Assortment.” This Flickr image from user jen is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/blu_pineappl3/1076129717 under the cc Attribution 2.0 license.
“Strawberry Pocky.” This Flickr image from user Janine is freely available at https://www.flickr.com/photos/geishabot/2073345808/ under the cc Attribution 2.0 license.
“Original Pocky Sticks.” This Wikipedia image from user Evan-Amos is freely available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pocky-Sticks.jpg under the CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.
“Pretz.” This Wikipedia image from user Kuha455405 is freely available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pretz.jpg under the CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.
“Lotte Almond Pepero Sticks.” This public domain image from user Evan-Amos is freely available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pepero-Almond-Sticks.jpg
“Glico Logo.” This public domain image from user Groink is freely available at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Glico_logo.svg