Japanese convenience store denies use of Nintendo alien labor in new dessert sandwich

Family Mart says the name of its new Pikmin-themed fruit sandwich is just a name.

It’s a good time to be a Pikmin fan. After a 10-year wait since the last full-fledged numbered installment in the series, Nintendo is set to release Pikmin 4 later this month for the Switch.

Pikmin’s two defining characteristics are its unique gameplay and character designs. In the game, you command the titular sentient plant species to gather necessary items from a garden-like environment. So to celebrate Pikmin 4’s eminent release, Japanese convenience store Family Mart is now offering a line of themed desserts featuring fruity flavors and Pikmin packaging, like this fruit and cream sandwich.

Fruit cream sandwiches have been popular dessert mainstays at Japanese convenience stores for a long time, and this one, priced at 398 yen (US$2.95) looks especially summertime-appealing with its focus on juicy and tropical fruits. Though the English text only lists the star ingredients of tangerine, kiwi, pineapple, and peach, the Japanese text has some extra fan service, as the product is officially called the “Four-Fruit Sandwich Made with Fruits Carried to Us by the Pikmin.”

Read the fine Japanese print, though, and you’ll find an admission from Family Mart that the product’s name is, in fact, a lie.

▼ “This product’s name and package illustration are for image purposes only. The fruits used in the product have not been carried by Pikmin.”

It’s not clear if the purpose of the disclaimer is to reassure consumers worried about the potential health/hygiene issues of having produce delivered by little aliens using their bare hands, or to prevent angry complaints from Nintendo fans disappointed at the lack of direct involvement by the creatures. Either way, though, it’s surprising that Family Mart’s legal/marketing teams felt the need to officially disavow the use of Pikmin labor, seeing as how, you know, they don’t exist in the real world.

Meanwhile, no such disclaimers are made about Family Mart’s 158-yen Sunseed Berry (named after Pikmin’s in-game strawberry equivalent), a cream-filled strawberry-flavored steamed bread bun, even though Pikmin are pictured carrying the berries…

…or on the 250-yen banana cream-filled Slapstick Crescent Choco Brownie Sandwich (“Slapstick Crescent” being the name for Pikmin’s version of a banana).

▼ Though in the Slapstick Crescent Choco Brownie Sandwich’s case, the Pikmin aren’t shown handling any of the ingredients.

Along with the new sweets, Family Mart is holding a promotion where buying any of them using the chain’s Fami Pay mobile app earns you one point, and collecting three makes you eligible for a drawing for a limited number of Pikmin half-size bath towels and muffler towels.

Family Mart’s Pikmin sweets went on sale July 4, and Pikmin 4 comes out July 21.

Source, images: PR Times
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