Advertising Behind Korean Entertainment

Have you ever notice that there are some advertising tricks behind those Korean entertainment we are enjoying?  It's like indirect message that the producers want to convey to the consumers in order to sell certain products or promote places.  As a foreigner who frequently watches some of K-dramas, I still can see the advertising behind the drama and this has a high impact on the audience who watch it.  Here are some of advertisement messages behind the drama and music

1. Tourism Promotion - by showing the beautiful scenery of the locations in the dramas, tourism is promoted in Korea.  Most of the K-dramas try to show altogether the scenery and the story.  The obvious example is the"4 seasons love series", it is a big drama project which try to attract the tourists to go to Korea include "Winter Love Song", "Autumn In My Heart", "Spring Waltz" and "Summer Scent"

Beautiful Scenery from "Boys Over Flowers" Drama in "Je Ju Island"

"Spring Waltz" drama location at Cheongsan-do

Beautiful location from "Winter Love Song" drama

Kiang Bog Palace - use as a location for many historical dramas

2. Advertising the products such as Samsung mobile phone, cosmetic-SKII or fashion (dress, hair style).  The manufacturers will give the products to the main actors and actresses to use thorough the drama.  For example, all the main actors and actresses in the "Ghost" drama use Samsung Galaxy Note.  When the drama episode being shown come close to the end of the episode, Samsung Galaxy S III model were also launched at the same time.  And off the screen, all the main actors and actresses in this drama use a newer model Samsung Galaxy S III in stead of Samsung Galaxy Note, the old version.

The leading actress of Rooftop Prince (Park Ha) with Samsung Galaxy Note

Kim Woo Yeon (leading actor in "Ghost" drama) with Samsung Galaxy S III

Lee Yeon Hee always uses SK II in "Ghost" drama. She is also a SK II presenter in real life

Girl Generation and colorful trousers fashion in "Gee" MV

3. Cultural Promotion for Korean Food, languages, beliefs or rituals.  All cultural dimensions come together in every drama

Promote Korean Food in "Feast of the Gods" drama

Traditional Korean Food in "Dae Jang Geum" drama

Traditional clothes of Korea "Hanbok" from "Dong Yi" drama

In order to advertise to make Korean Wave successful,  Korean Government play a vital role in various ways to help its own cultural industry, promote and export cultural goods by providing increased the national budget to this particular sector.  This can be the case for the other countries to follow as a guideline to build their own marketing strategies for the promotion of own country.  Here is the link to read a Master thesis by Thai student on a study in Korean wave in order to be a lesson to Thailand for establishing a Thai Wave.https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:KNr7eEKkK3oJ:laofutze.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/thai-vs-korean-pop-culture.pdf+&hl=en&gl=th&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiAuo7VMeaJ5xA_MbiB1h4dIua63nsj8bMS2o8kKUALkVzXpfoUbuHsM1qabtUzdeIfAaPkC010YGDQ1XVmtNOt2EbUF4LkZ1FD6wNBAR7aBNCgRZ-Q-dYIfmjm8YR6fVfGb38G&sig=AHIEtbSxAmxD6tKmkIUnoQiK2BpYDi06Aw