With Valentine's Day just around the corner, Konami thought a good way to promote its Nintendo DS title Love Plus would be to have girls in school uniforms hand out chocolate snacks to random men.
Wrapped bags with the Pocky snack were distributed today, and the snacks come with a card that can be used with a web cam display an augmented reality message.
If you notice in the gajillion pictures Famitsu.com took of the event, the girls are only giving chocolate to men. In Japan, chocolate is given to men by women — though some confectionary companies are trying to launch a "reverse Valentine's Day" tradition and encourage men to give chocolate to women.
Men give chocolate to women a month later on White Day, which is March 14. It is called "White Day" because it was originally started by marshmallow makers in hopes of increasing marshmallow sales as buying chocolate was considered "girly". These days, nobody gives marshmallows.
My six year-old son is counting down the days to Valentine's Day, hoping that he will get chocolate from a girl or two. Konami is tapping directly into that nostalgic feeling with this campaign. Brilliant!
都内で『ラブプラス』バレンタインデー大作戦実施中！ - ファミ通.com
『ラブプラス』よりバレンタインのお知らせ [Kotaku Japan]