What kind of photo would you feature in that ad? The obvious answer, of course, is a beautiful photo of your sushi.
But I recently ran across an ad on Facebook for a Houston-area Japanese restaurant that made me scratch my head. It left me wondering what their marketing person was thinking – and if they even know what sushi is over there. The reply to it, and the reply to that reply, are comical.
The ad (above) showed a very nice photo of some food. Above the photo, someone wrote "Best sushi in the town!" In the upper left of the photo we see some tempura, an egg roll or spring roll, and what appears to be some deep fried items. Moving clockwise, we see rice, a partially peeled orange and, finally, some shrimp.
Let me be very clear that I am NOT criticizing the establishment itself. I've never eaten there, and the reviews they get on Google Maps are overwhelmingly positive. My criticism here is not of their food or service. It is only about a specific ad they placed on Facebook.
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| The sushi-less sushi ad |
None of the items in the photo is sushi. Not one of them. The food looks tasty, but why not write "Best Japanese food in town" instead? It's as though the Facebook ad was hastily thrown together without much thought. Surely the folks at Sapporo restaurant have one or two photos of sushi laying around.
Even more baffling, however, was Sapporo's
reply to this criticism
The sushi-less photo was brought to their attention and Sapporo replied. "We have a lot of delicious sushi, welcome!"
That would have been the end of it, but as part of that reply they included a new photo – with no sushi in it! It was just sashimi (raw fish, but not sushi) and some veggies.
Sushi is not simply raw fish. The easiest way to remember it is this: sushi must have something affixed to a ball of rice to be "sushi." If it's just a slice of raw fish it's not sushi, it's sashimi.
Award-winning San Diego seafood restaurant Lionfish says this about sushi and sashimi:
"While many people assume that sushi is also raw fish, it is actually vinegar rice that is mixed with a number of other ingredients, which can include either cooked or raw fish....[Although] raw fish may be a traditional staple in most types of sushi, it is not a prerequisite for this dish. Translated, sushi means 'it is sour' which typically has to do with the vinegar rice." AND "...sashimi is thinly sliced raw meat, typically fish that is served without rice."
As noted earlier, Sapporo's first photo included no sushi; neither did the second one, which showed only sashimi. Which leads me back to the question: Do the good folks at Sapporo not know the difference between the two? Or, more specifically, does their marketing person/s not know?
Some of you will think I'm being petty about this. But I'm not, really. Advertising and marketing are extremely important to any business. One bad ad can discourage an unknown number of people from buying your goods or services.
Consider this: If you owned a hardware store, and you wanted to make people aware of your great selection of auto repair tools, would you feature a nice photo of those – or of mops and brooms?
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