Killing time with Japanese tv

Plenty of time on my Japan visit to watch tv because of the too-hot-to-do-anything weather and it's reminded me how I'd love to read a comparative study on Japanese vs. English language tv. Commercials in any English speaking country I've been to more often than not show you a lifestyle and then associate their product with it. In Japan it so often seems like they concentrate on showing the product, and sometimes they don't even do that - just a bunch of kids in costumes (giant fruit or anthropomorphised characters) singing and dancing a jingle - very fast with usually with a a micro jingle at the end. In some ways if feels more wholesome or at least less cynical and insidious. Maybe it's related to how short the individual commercials are. Beer is advertised as a thirst quencher - always the actor drinking giant gulps at a time - the gulping sound itself seems vital, just as vital as the large head on the beer. Even whiskey is advertised with the gulping, refreshing sound, and by young women instead of grizzled old Hemminway types.