Video of ‘Bento Watch’ That’s Circulating Online is Made with Real Food But is an Old Video


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Tiny food is fascinating, mainly for the fact that it is something so pointless that you can’t help but admire when it is well done.

When I say well done, I don’t mean the beef. Relax./ Image: Giphy

If you’ve been skiving off work like I’ve been doing by browsing Facebook, you might have watched a video about an entire bento being squeezed into a watch. Which is the perfect lunch for busy people amirite?

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the video.

Facebook video: Wristwatch with a whole bento you can eat

You can watch the most recently circulated one on Yahoo Facebook, which is 50 seconds long including out-tros and repeated footage.

But in case you can’t see, here’s what’s showed:

An “entire bento” stuffed into a watch.

Image: Yahoo Facebook

Where you can pull out a pair of… something by the sides…?

Image: Yahoo Facebook

Chopsticks!

Image: Yahoo Facebook

Perfect for the busy Japanese salaryman.

Image: Yahoo Facebook

What is this shit? Who the hell invents this kind of product?

For obvious reasons, this looks really suspicious.

Folks, it’s time for some fact-checking.

Yeah, I’m pressing that X button SO hard./ Image: Know Your Meme

Video in 2016 by Japanese agriculture company Takii Seed

As anyone could have expected, this isn’t actually a real product. It’s an old marketing campaign done by a Japanese agriculture company called Takii Seed. As the name would suggest, they sell seeds of vegetables and flowers.

There’s only one copy of the watch, which was actually made for the purpose of the ad, but not for sale. And, the food is also real.

Here’s the entire original ad:


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They first showed Japanese salarymen being busy, and possibly being deprived of nutrients from not eating well.

Image: Takii Seed

Then showing the watchmaker, cosmetic surgeon, chef and diorama maker in the video who created the bento watch.

Image: Takii Seed
Image: Takii Seed
Image: Takii Seed
Image: Takii Seed

And then…revealing that everything thus far is a god damn advertisement, because of course, it is.

Here’s a message about nutritious vegetables. Because remember it’s an ad for a company selling vegetable seeds.

Image: Takii Seed

Still, remember that this is an advertisement. This is the line of product they are promoting called Phyto Rich.


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Image: Takii Seed

Only after showing the brand, did they show the salaryman eating from the bento watch scene. At this point, it is clear as day that this is an advertisement.

The video then ends with the company’s name, Takii Seed or Tane no Takii “タネのタキイ”. We even see the slogan which means “for the evolution of vegetables”. Which again, hammers in the fact about selling their product which in their claim is more nutritious.

Image: Takii Seed

Instead, we have a bunch of edited videos taking this out of context

Since I doubt Takii Seed had a public response to the content creators who took the advertisement out of context and even removed most branding information, here’s my message:

Not cool.

Image: Giphy

The Yahoo video was made by a Facebook page In The Know, which has a following of 4.3 million people.

In their video, they took out the obvious hints that show this is an advertisement and also more importantly also took out the main message to buy Phyto Rich seeds.


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Then they plastered the In The Know logo at the end, which now deceives viewers into thinking this might be a real product.

It’s not the only page doing that.

For instance, Brainy is the New Sexy did a similar thing, taking the bento watch out of context and got 1 million views.

I’m not saying the videos don’t look good, but at the very least let people know that it’s from a marketing campaign. Now Takii Seed just looks like an idiot, and got no exposure from the… careless… editing made.

Despite everything, Takii Seed’s original video on YouTube only got 300k views.

All I’m saying is, please give credit where it’s due. It’s our responsibility as content creators.


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But hey, if someone happens to flirt with you citing the Bento Watch they saw from Brainy is the New Sexy, you can chase them away by showing that they’re not brainy enough for you since they haven’t done their research.