iconic image in commercial

This week, we talked about advertisements and learn how to interpret their (implied) meanings.

By examing Korean commercial, I found that not only implied meanings in the advertisements are important, but the models also signify important message. In Korea, when people evalute whether a celebrity has succeeded or not, it is usually determined by his/her appearance in a commercial ( the numbers of commercials that he/she has taken). Most of commercials are taken by popular celebrities in Korea.

For example, one of Korean actress Hwang Jung Eum, is now taking a role in a sitcom (it has been 5 months). Not only the sitcom is popular, but also Ms. Hwang has gained tremendous popularity that she has never gained in her life as celebrities. People love her character but they are more interested in her fashion style. All the clothes, accessories that Ms. Hwang have worn in the sitcom get attention and are even sold out. As clohtes companies raise their profits by letting Hwang to wear their stuff, a lot of other companies want her to be appeared in their commercials. So, she took a lot of commercial including cosmetics, clothes, shoes,etc.

Unlike commercials in U.S and other countries (commercials are usally taken by professional models and concentrated on denotative and connotative messages), commercials in Korea usually use popular (at that moment) celebrities. Then why do Korean commercials use them? Becuase those celebrities serve really good iconic images. Most of Korean commercials have this kind of message; This guy whom you like use our products. If you want to be like him/her, you should use our products. This method has amazing effects to people so far: the profits of companies are affected a lot by the celebrities who appear on their commercials.