I feel like if you’re even going to consider 2PM and Dream High’s Taecyeon for marriage than you need to know exactly what you’re working with. I mean, We Got Married: Global Edition shows his personality, sure; but come on, personality isn’t everything. (-_-) This video I found from his Men’s Health Magazine photo shoot last year really shows Taec in a new light that I feel you need to be aware of.
Click the video below to see Taec in a way that may you leave shocked.
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Oh, and the song playing during the video is “Electricity” by 2PM.
Has your impression of Taec changed after this revealing video? Comment below!
KrisE! @K_Kisses_KrisE
If you’ve ever paid attention to the sidebar here at Seoulbeats, odds are you’ve been fortunate enough to be graced by the presence of HyunA and her Toyota Corolla. For those who haven’t, you can probably either take a look to your right— provided it is still there, or check out the screen shot. (I’ve also highlighted the ad for those who don’t think the car is a big enough giveaway.)
I may be joking about the 2PM music video being un-advertisement-like, but there have been occasions where the impact of the music video and song essentially supersedes the product being sold. The most famous of these MV/CF hybrids are the music videos for Girls’ Generation and f(x) who both promoted the LG Chocolate phone through different versions of the song “Chocolate Love.” The song became very popular, and ironically, “Chocolate Love” is often regarded as one of f(x)’s best songs. Another surprising thing about “Chocolate Love” is that the song, which started out as just a CF song, actually became a promoted song for f(x) in non-advertising avenues. They preformed the song live for KFN, Children’s Day, and multiple other events besides the one for LG CYON promoting the phone—there’s even an English version they promoted in France. Another great example would be the popularity of Big Bang and 2NE1‘s ”Lollipop,” which was a song released for the promotion of the LG Lollipop phone that pretty much skyrocketed 2NE1′s popularity before they even debuted.
Sometimes advertisers go as far as to create new musical groups to promote a product. JYJ’s Junsu (while he was in TVXQ), BoA (the main model), Tablo, and a pianist named Jin Bora made the project group AnyBand for AnyCall Samsung, through which they promoted two songs: “TPL” and “Promise You.” The group made a single music video for both songs and also had a concert which included supporting performances by TVXQ and Epik High. In my opinion, the project group sounded amazing together (you literally had some of the best singers and rappers in K-pop in one group) and I only wish there were more releases from them, advertisement or not.
Clearly, companies are spending huge sums of money to have K-pop idols support their products just by their presence alone. It feels like every other day that we seem to hear something about Girls’ Generation promoting a product that gets sold out faster than you can count to three just because they promote it. K-pop idols, male and female alike, are always working for make-up companies, and you see their faces littered across beauty shops in Korea and on websites online. K-pop endorsements certainly don’t end there since they promote everything from water filtration systems to school uniforms.
Music, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to work that way. We watch performances of the same song multiple times over, make playlists that we play over and over—there’s even a button on iTunes that plays a single song on infinite loop. Songs don’t just stick to our brains, they stay stuck. ”Chocolate Love” and “Lollipop” are still songs I enjoy and associate with the LG phones they promoted, even when the phone isn’t on sale anymore. The beauty of K-pop as an advertising medium is its parasitic quality, wherein catchy songs tend to just not leave, no matter how much one tries. Advertisements have taken advantage of that quality, and to great success. I won’t be surprised if we see K-pop based advertisements well into the future.
