"Kanebo, for beautiful human life."
Remember? If you do, you must have lived for a very long time in Japan. Or you must be a seasoned collector of the more esoteric Japanglish phrases. Or both.
That phrase, coupled in television commercials with the characteristic bell-shaped logo the company went in for at the time, was apt to stir up a lot of impassioned debate in pre-bubble Japan. Linguistic purists obviously abhorred and were embarrassed by the creatively concocted phrase, yet the idea of human life as something beautiful did hold a certain appeal. There was a hint of ecological sophistication there that spoke to the worn-out economic animals of that time.