8 hours ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
‘Landmark kid': Japan dad spends US$700,000 to advertise son's photos to share cuteness
A Japanese father who runs a real estate company has gone viral for spending 100 million yen (US$700,000) to plaster advertisements bearing his son's photos on footbridges, buses and convenience stores.
The boy, who is known as Yu-kun, is well known in the Adachi area of Tokyo and has been affectionately dubbed 'The Landmark Kid' by local residents.
His smiling image is everywhere, from massive footbridge banners and parking signs to city buses.
One of the huge adverts featuring an image of Yu-kun as a young boy. Photo:
His image even appears in convenience store windows.
Yu-kun is not a child star, a model or a prodigy, he is simply the son of a real estate company owner who thought his child was so adorable that the entire city deserved to see him.
'My son was just too adorable when he was little. I thought, all of Tokyo should know,' his father said.
To make that happen he turned his son's funniest childhood photos into a full-blown advertising campaign, creating more than 10 different versions in total.
To date, he has spent nearly 100 million yen on the advertisements.
