In 2020, Pepsi Japan put footballer Keisuke Honda up against WRPSA world champion Ken "Whitey" Watson in a filmed rock paper scissors match for its Japan Cola campaign, "Honda and Rock Paper Scissors 2020". Honda was playing for Botafogo in Rio de Janeiro at the time, so Watson was flown to Brazil to face him. You can watch the match on YouTube.
We at WRPSA worked with Pepsi Japan on that campaign, and it is one of the moments I am proudest of. An earlier version of this page wrongly suggested the match never happened. That was a mistake on our part: the match was real, it was filmed, and the video is still up.
The 2020 match: Honda vs Watson
Pepsi Japan had already built a campaign around Honda and janken (the Japanese name for rock paper scissors) the year before. For 2020 it raised the stakes: instead of the public playing Honda through Twitter, Honda would face a world champion on camera.
- The campaign: "Honda and Rock Paper Scissors 2020", for Pepsi Japan Cola.
- The players: Keisuke Honda, the Japan international, and Ken "Whitey" Watson, WRPSA world champion.
- The setting: Brazil. Honda had joined Botafogo in early 2020, so rather than bring Honda to the game, Pepsi Japan brought the game to Honda and flew Watson in.
- The format: a filmed head-to-head challenge, produced as campaign video.
Watson was not new to the spotlight. In 2018 ESPN Radio interviewed him as WRPSA world champion for its ESPN8: The Ocho coverage. Our media page and history page list both appearances with links.
I am not going to narrate the match throw by throw here; the video does that better than I can. What I will say is that it shows the thing that makes rock paper scissors watchable at a high level: two people who both know the other is trying to read them.
The 2019 campaign that came first
The Watson match followed a separate, earlier promotion. On April 18 and 19, 2019, Pepsi Japan ran a Twitter campaign where anyone could play janken against Honda for a free bottle of Pepsi Japan Cola, as reported by SoraNews24 at the time:
- How to play: follow Pepsi Japan's Twitter account and retweet the post matching your throw.
- Honda's move: an automated reply showed what Honda had thrown.
- The prize: a coupon for a free 600 ml Pepsi Japan Cola at FamilyMart or Lawson, with up to 160,000 available.
It became famous for how rarely people won. One Twitter user gathered 3,143 moves and counted roughly 13 player wins, a 0.41% win rate. A fair game gives each side about a third of the wins, so a fair Honda would have lost around 1,000 of those. Promotions like this are prize draws presented as games: the brand sets the odds, and the throw is the presentation. That count is one fan's, and Pepsi Japan did not publish its own numbers.
The contrast with 2020 is the point. In 2019 Honda was an automated reply. In 2020 he sat across from a real opponent.
Why janken works for marketing in Japan
Janken settles everyday decisions across Japan: who pays, who goes first, who cleans up. A janken challenge needs no explanation, which makes it an easy hook. The game's Japanese roots go back to the sansukumi-ken family of hand games; our history page covers how jan-ken became the version the world plays.
Play it yourself
If you want to test yourself against an honest opponent, you can play rock paper scissors online free, against the computer or other people. For more moments when the game made the news, see famous moments.
FAQ
Did Keisuke Honda really play Ken Watson at rock paper scissors?
Yes. Pepsi Japan filmed the match for its 2020 Japan Cola campaign, "Honda and Rock Paper Scissors 2020", and the video is on YouTube.
Who is Ken Watson?
Ken "Whitey" Watson is a WRPSA world champion. ESPN Radio interviewed him for ESPN8: The Ocho coverage in 2018, and Pepsi Japan flew him to Brazil to face Honda in 2020.
Why was the match in Brazil?
Honda was playing for Botafogo in Rio de Janeiro in 2020, so Watson travelled to him.
Was the 2019 Twitter campaign the same thing?
No. The April 2019 campaign let the public play Honda through automated Twitter replies for free cola. The Watson match was a separate, filmed challenge the following year.