Today, August 10, is Hat Day in Japan, formed by Japan’s love for a pun-based occasion: ha (eight) and to (ten), which together form hatto, the Japanese pronunciation of “hat”. It also happens to be one of the punniest dates on the Japanese calendar, so the auto parts store Yellow Hat, known for its bizarre commercials, created one for the ages. This is going to get weird so buckle in, people.
In a parody of a “We Are the World”-style benefit concert, the spot brings together all the varied celebrations that fall on August 10. It starts off with actual Yellow Hat president Yasuo Horie lamenting via song the fact that so many holidays must compete for attention on 8/10. He’s joined by the real chairman of Pigeon Mark Movers (a pigeon, or dove, is pronounced hato and serves as the logo of the Japanese moving company), the real CEO of Linux Red Hat’s Japanese subsidiary, and the president of ad agency Hat, Inc.
Having random heads of unrelated companies in your ad is odd enough, but the choir further expands to include a woman singing into a cheese hot dog (chīzu hattogu, because despite “hot” being translated as hotto in Japanese, this popular street food originates in Korea and thus is based on the Korean pronunciation of the English word “hot dog”) mic, employees from the hat-cleaning service Clean Hat, a samurai representing Hattori Hanzo, and Hatton, an anthropomorphized blob of spilled hatto soup that is the mascot of Tome City, Miyagi Prefecture.
To continue on this voyage, you’ll need to know that in Japanese the katakana read as ba (バ) and pa (パ) are modified forms of the base ha (ハ). Enter the red mouse mascot for job recruitment site Baitoru, the anti-smoking duck mascot for National Heart (hāto) Day, a bride for Wedding Photo Day (celebrated on 8/10 because of the pun on the aforementioned heart as well as partner (pātonā)), the mascot for the popular sugar cracker snack Yuki no Yado which is no pun but was born on 8/10, dancers from the Kochi Prefecture regional Yosakoi Festival held on 8/10, and two gents in dreadlocks because it’s also Reggae Music Day (which falls on 8/10 due to Jamaican patois).
Unfortunately, it seems that Yellow Hat was unable to get all the holidays of August 10 to sign on, because today is also Badminton Day, Banana Juice Day, Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Day, Pizza Hut Day, Snoopy Day (based on Charles M. Schulz’s cartoon beagle’s birthday), Mobile Police Patlabor Day and leading bryology lab Hattori Botanical Research Institute’s Moss Day (which also happens to fall on founder Shinsuke Hattori’s actual birthday, August 10, 1915, no joke!). There’s also standalone automotive connections in Brake Pad Day and, of course, it would have been incredible if someone in the ad showed up in a Nissan 810. Even so, the star power in Yellow Hat’s recording session is as impressive as it is hilarious, and we’re heartened to see their tradition of insane commercials continue.
What was the point of all this again? Oh yeah, hats. So, uh…
What’s your favorite automotive hat?
The most entertaining comment by next week will receive a prize. Scroll down to see the winner of last week’s QotW, “What was your favorite slot car experience?”
There were some true celebrities of the automotive world among last week’s respondents. Toyota/Lexus designer Erwin Lui, Mazda engineer Kelvin Hiraishi, and long time reader Negishi no Keibajo all had fond memories of the Cox Chaparral slot cars. Released during the height of the slot car craze of the 1960s, these revolutionized the hobby. They helped popularize highly detailed injection-molded (rather than vacuum formed) bodies, lightweight magnesium chassis, and active aerodynamics like Jim Hall’s life-sized Can-Am cars.
Former Road & Track editor-in-chief, Chrysler engineer, and SCCA racer john dinkel recalled what might be the greatest automotive showdown ever aired on late night television, when the Ed Sullivan Show invited actual race car drivers to compete with slot cars on air.
Joe Musashi recalls the fun that could be had despite connection issues found on cheaper sets, while @ye reminisced about the odor of heated resin emanating from childhood. Fast forward a few years and we enter another era of slot cars with ra21benj‘s memory of the set every 80s kid wanted, the Tyco Super Cliff Hangers. Even today, slot cars apparently appear in the Yakuza Zero video game as a fond throwback, according to Franxou.
The winner this week is Bill, who unlocked memories of the impromptu bringing of physical toys over to friends’ houses. While we never acted out the exact scenario he mentioned, his answer conjured visions of shag carpets, wood-paneled walls, and the improvisational amusements that were commonplace in the pre-internet era:
Building a drag strip by adding all the straight track together that the me and some friends had; multiple power packs and a cushion at the end to take the final impact. My Revel 1965 Stingray did well … probably as it was heavy and more stable
Omedetou, your comment has earned you a set of decals from the JNC Shop!
My Trail Motor Apex Racing baseball cap.
The very abridged version of the story is that TMAR basically showed up out of nowhere at the 2022 Tokyo Auto Salon with some ridiculously high budget builds (One was that Hakosuka with a NASCAR V8 built by Daigo Saito). Soon after that, they sponsored 4 of the most popular drivers in D1GP. Their budget was seemingly endless, despite it not being clear what the company actually did.
As it soon turned out, what their parent company (Trail Logistics) did was defraud millions of dollars from Rakuten. The owner and a few others involved went to jail and TMAR disappeared as quickly as it started.
In 2024 I was at D1 round 1 at Okuibuki and I got my hat signed by all four of the former drivers (who also happen to be four of my favorites) – Daigo Saito, Naoki Nakamura, Takahiro Ueno, and Hokuto Matsuyama. They were all amused and in good spirits about it, as far as I know they were just along for the ride and had no direct involvement.
Mos def the top hat on a set of KW Clubsports.
That ad is amazing. And thank you for the explanation which makes it so much better. If I was in Japan and it came on tv, I would probably think it was part of one of their off-the-wall short attention span shows which seem like utter nonsense to me.
And the song, for which I understand none of the lyrics, is now stuck in my head.
I don’t have any car-related hats. I wear the same gray fitted cap I bought at Walmart pretty much any time I leave the house with plans on being outside for a long time, like at Cars and Coffee. It has no logo on it.
I do leave a George Mason University hat in my Miata that I wear the the top is open and the sun is out….
I add my thanks for the ad and the explanation, which make it even better!
it’s very special occasion, this Honda F1 “hat”