Blurred Strategy

Thicke still has a relatively low profile in Japan, so Universal International struck a deal with the management of the country’s biggest idol act, AKB48, and made a new video of Thicke’s summer hit that included two AKB members, Haruna Kojima and Yuko Oshima.

It starts out with the two Japanese stars watching the original (non-topless) video in their room on their computer and grooving along with it when Thicke himself walks into the room with the models from the video and they all groove together while hashtags for Thicke, AKB48 and the song are flashed on the screen.

In addition to selling Thicke and the song in Japan, the video seems to want to sell AKB48 overseas, though it doesn’t indicate anything that might clue a viewer in to what kind of music the group makes.