Pingu and lifestyle magazine Lettuce Club cook up a great competition!

Brandora Redaktion - April 2019

Tokyo-based Sony Creative Products Inc. (SCP), which manages licensing in the Japanese market for the much-loved little animated penguin Pingu on behalf of rights owner Mattel Inc, has begun the year with a tasty treat for fans of the cheeky penguin: a special Pingu collaboration with women’s lifestyle magazine Lettuce Club. Lettuce Club is published by Kadokawa Corporation, a major name in lifestyle, fashion and entertainment magazines.

In order to win one of a number of prizes, competition entrants were asked to come up with an original recipe themed around Pingu, his family and his friends, turn it into a tasty meal and send the recipe and a picture of their edible work of art to the magazine. But no cheating! Entrants had to use real food. Using a specially painted dish or adding sweets didn’t count!

Entrants were invited to tweet the recipe or post it to Instagram by using a dedicated hashtag, with the chance for the winner to see his or her recipe featured in Lettuce Club magazine, Lettuce Club news and Pingu’s official homepage. There were also special prizes of Pingu-themed goods for the best recipe ideas. And no doubt the readership of Lettuce Club, whose recipes are a popular feature of the magazine, have been trying some Pingu meal ideas for themselves!

The competition, which ran from late February to early March, is the latest in a number of collaborations and agreements that underline the appeal of the funny, happy world of Pingu and his friends and the success of the new, entirely Japanese-made-and-produced computer-animated TV series Pingu in the City.

Pingu in the City (two series of 26 x 7 minutes) launched on the NHK ETV channel – which is owned by Japan's public broadcaster, NHK – in October 2017. This delightful new version of the Pingu story brings the cheeky, lovable penguin and his family from their small village to the big city, where Pingu meets many other fascinating penguins, finds out about what they do and – inevitably – gets into trouble. The success of the new series in Japan is expected to extend into other markets after the announcement last year of a new distribution partnership for Pingu with Sony Music Entertainment España, S.L. (SME). The Madrid-based music publishing and distribution company will distribute Pingu in the City in a number of European and Latin American territories.

Other collaborations and promotions since the launch of the new series have included a Pingu-themed café in Shinjuku, a Pingu-themed shopping event in one of Japan’s best-known and biggest shopping malls in early 2018, and a Christmas collaboration with Sunshine Aquarium, a popular city aquarium in Tokyo.

Takeshi Nakamura, Global Business Group Licensing Manager, Sony Creative Products Inc., says: “This competition has captured the fun and charm of Pingu and his friends in a delightful and original way. It’s been wonderful to see how the readers of Lettuce Club have brought some of their favourite children’s characters to their specially designed meals.”