Popular cup noodle commercial revives Metal Gear Solid V’s 9-year coma meme
Nissin’s latest commercial uses characters from Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain to reveal a “shocking truth” about one of their staple ramen products in meme format. The ad has both online users and even the game’s creator, Hideo Kojima, amused.
The world-renowned instant noodle company Nissin posted a promotional video on its official X/Twitter account, announcing the release of its new Premium Seafood Cup Noodles on September 11. The commercial reutilizes Phantom Pain’s opening hospital scene, an iconic moment every player likely remembers.
In Phantom Pain’s memorable opening scene the protagonist, Venom Snake, awakens from his nine-year coma after the events of the previous game. Snake awakens to a doctor and nurse towering over him, and upon being informed of what had happened to him displays distress, to which the doctor hushes him to calm down.
In Nissin’s commercial, the doctor tells Snake to relax, as he reveals a shocking but common misconception about Nissin’s staple seafood-flavored noodles. The doctor states “The thing which you always believed was there, in truth, wasn’t really there.” Sharing the supposed secret, he tells Snake that the Nissin Seafood flavored cup noodles never actually contained shrimp, leading Snake to a panicked state. However, the doctor then delivers the reassuring news that Nissin’s new product, the Premium Seafood cup noodles, does in fact contain shrimp. The advertisement’s usage of the popular scene, albeit oddly morbid, was well received by Metal Gear Solid fans and cup noodle fans alike.
The meme format (Related Article), commonly referred to as the “Nine Years In a Coma/Please Stay Calm and Listen meme,” that went viral in Japan last year and was initially created to poke a bit of fun at the manga Hunter × Hunter’s lengthy hiatus, has once again been brought to life. In the original version of the meme, the OP uses Snake’s awakening from his nine-year coma to show that even such a long slumber wasn’t enough time for the manga to return. Soon enough everyone jumped on the trend, sharing their own memes about long waits.
The meme became so popular at the time that even Metal Gear Solid creator, Hideo Kojima, joined in on the fun. Kojima responded in his own post “Recently, I’ve been receiving images of the hospital scene from the beginning of MGSV in Cyprus. I wondered why, and it turns out it’s because the 9-year coma has become an internet meme.”
Once again, the meme is catching wind thanks to Nissin’s Metal Gear Solid commercial. Additionally, Kojima once again acknowledged the reappearance of the meme, giving Nissin’s use of the scene the thumbs up.
Nissin has long been known for their various unconventional commercials, and recently they’ve been liberal with their use of popular memes and media (Related Article) in their advertising. It will be interesting to see what kind of advertisement the instant noodle company has in store for us next.
