Korean TV dramas give Asian shoppers urge to splurge

The export success of South Korea’s TV dramas has spawned a hard-selling world of branded entertainment that uses product placement to push everything from smartphones to lipsticks. The so-called Hallyu (Korean Wave) of TV shows and pop music has long conquered most of Asia and, in recent years, found new, devoted fans in the Middle East, Latin America and North Africa. The vast audiences opened stealth marketing opportunities that have become distinctly less stealthy as competition has intensified. South Korean firms now spend millions of dollars ensuring lovers in popular soap operas confess their feelings via Samsung smartphones, kiss in Hyundai cars and move into a house equipped with a giant LG TV. The power of the most popular dramas to launch new trends and boost existing ones was displayed by the recent production ‘My Love from the Star’ – an unlikely love story between a top female movie star and a 400-year-old alien disguised as a human. The SBS television show was a huge hit, especially in China where it triggered a craze for Korean-style fried chicken and beer, the favoured comfort food of the show’s heroine – played by Gianna Jun. The main characters talked and sent texts on Samsung’s Galaxy Note smartphones, or chatted via the Line mobile app made by Naver, Seoul’s top Internet portal, according to AFP.