The 'Naruhodo' guy: More foreign nerd marketing

Compared to the McDonald's Japan spokesman of last year, at least Mr Naruhodo is well-dressed and is allowed to speak his native language for most of the commercial. (Video by YouTube user horikukenzo)

Last year McDonald's Japan tapped the power of white American nerdiness through a certain Mr James. This year, Mercedes-Benz is taking a similar approach with a character named Mr Naruhodo. 

In the commercial, a bespectacled German gentleman introduces himself as Mr Naruhodo -- naruhodo meaning "I see" in Japanese. The man explains that he is a very "rational" person and then seems borderline OCD about cleaning his hands after eating, perhaps fitting with the global stereotype of Germans as very serious. (His outfit, in contrast, is stereotypically British or Ivy League American: herringbone jacket, cleric collar shirt and club tie.)

But since Mr Naruhodo is so rational, he is very happy to see that Mercedes-Benz crash tests prove the cars to be safe and the payment plan is very economical. In approval, he utters a mysteriously American English-accented "naruhodo."

So do silly foreign men in glasses help sell products in Japan? Their proliferation seems to be proof of their effectiveness. Naruhodo.