Oh Gods here it comes!

Ok, so I have also been avoiding writing about this for a long time as well.  K-Pop is one of those unavoidable forces of nature that comes with living in South Korea.  With the success of Gangnam Style in the states as a bit of a cult phenomenon, I can’t help but write about the bizarre WTFness of K-Pop (and Korean commercials too).  Now you may be wondering what these two things have in common, but as it turns out there is a trend here of doing commercials as music videos.  Seriously, I’ll take the time to point out a several minute soda commercial that plays much more like a music video than you would think. 

First example- the famous girl group T-ara, doing a short video for outdoor ware.  As someone who has far more wit than I once suggested, the clip makes perfect sense.  This clothing is perfectly marketed to the cat person, accordion playing, hiker crowd, so the commercial makes perfect sense. 

Now, I have some criticisms of Korean cinema.  They aren’t major, and in many movies it works very well.  However there are a number of areas where the Korean’s philosophy of drama just doesn’t apply.  I have spoken about the mythical Korean comedy before.  A Korean comedy is a movie that uses humor and slapstick to set you up for the crushing despair of drama that is to come later.  Example, the Korean film “Sex is Zero”, which was billed as the Korean version of American Pie, sounded alright to me, and then I started watching it.  Now think about American Pie (any version will do) wouldn’t an abortion sub-plot where one of the characters suffers complications afterwards and the loveable, goofball protagonist (in this case Jason Biggs) has to carry Alyson Hannigan on his back into the hospital before she bleeds to death.  Yeah that will have the audience rolling in the aisles.  Now take this example- as I mentioned before commercials have often been merged with K-Pop videos for some strange reason.  In this one (which is not as long as the video suggests) is a beer commercial.  What a stalker plot has to do with selling beer I will never know.   

Now cell phones are one of the staples of the Korean economy.  Rachel and I have been fortunate enough to actually have very nice phones.  Now one thing that is still true is that famous characters sell, and Lucas in no less of a sellout here than back in the States.  While I am not sure when Darth Vader developed teleportation, I do think that it is amusing. 

There is a whole series of the Darth Vader commercials out there and I encourage you dear readers to investigate them more.  However all good things must come to an end, and LTE went with a new advertising campaign.  While I miss seeing Lord Vader randomly on TV, this next ad has a jingle that is nothing short of brilliant.  I even used it in class as an example of effective advertising (for my older students). 

Now at the beginning of this whole thing I promised a soda commercial, and since I am a person of my word here now is what I can only describe as the first in a series of commercials that all involve the same characters, whom have magically become pop stars through the power of Fanta soda.  These three characters (whom happen to match the three Fanta flavors) appear in commercial after commercial here in Korea.  This one is the first in a long series of videos; the most recent one even has some Caucasian prince (I can only assume that it’s Harry since the “good one” has already been taken), drops down in front of the female “orange flavor” pop star and proposes.  She then cries out Yes (in English) again and again.  Now this one is more of a mass spectacle of a commercial.  The translation, I find, does not matter, and in fact is much more amusing if you make up your own. 

And last but not least the sensation that inspired this whole blog, Gangnam Style.  First, a few things that you may not know about this video.  Gangnam is a district here in Seoul.  It is one of the more famous areas, where wealth, fashion, and youth all converge.  The occasional movie star can be seen there, and I go there every so often to play board games with nerds.  On a personal note I have been to a small number of locations in the video, and it is amusing to me to see them (most of them are along the Han River where I go to exercise).  Lastly, the video has a plethora of cameos by other Korean celebrities.  G-Dragon is the most prominent that I can think of (he’s the dude in the yellow suit that the singer has a dance competition with, and is one of the more well-known K-Pop stars), and there is also a famous comedian who is that dude in the elevator (you know the one).  Anywho, enjoy.