There is a lot that I’m not entirely sure of regard the business of the Korean pop music industry. I’ve heard that many aspiring singers have to go through “training” inside the entertainment company before they are “debuted” either in a group or as a soloist.

Though more so now is the explosion of girls groups that appear to release every two weeks. There is a standard breakdown of how members are classified, but that’s for another time. What is interesting to me now is how Kpop product endorsement works.

I’ve seen many beer-related endorsements from “drink-legal” idols, but I can’t ever seeing that work here in the United States. With MADD and many other watchdog groups, the only thing I can think of happening is a mass online boycott of those specific pop artists because they’re promoting beer to their underage fans.

The strangest endorsement I have seen isn’t a strange product, but the song created for it is bizarre.

The song title is AMOLED. Some people may know that the OLED technology is something used in many cell phones and is slowly working it’s way to computer monitors. The definition of the AMOLED is this:

AMOLED is the acronym for active-matrix organic light-emitting diode

So they based a song off the acronym to push a new Samsung phone.

So when you hear the chorus, Son Dambi is singing the acronym. I just find that strange.

The other product endorsement was also for a phone, but had a double-edged use. Big Bang is one of the biggest pop boy groups in South Korea, and was recently promoting themselves in Japan. The CF for Lollipop was for another cell phone, but also was an unofficial debut of a new girl group for YG Entertainment, the entertainment company behind the two groups.

It becomes more obvious that these groups don’t have too much to say in what they endorse or even what they are singing. In some ways it does seem like being successful may rank a little higher than having a long-term meaningful career.

These groups are still considered “idol” groups each with a expiration date that will come sooner or later. I believe that some idol group members are branching out into other forms of entertainment and will be able to outlast the idol stigma that may attach itself.

There is nothing wrong with these product endorsements, they’re just a little strange. Creating a whole digital single along with a music video doesn’t seem like the greatest way to spend marketing money, but the buying audience may follow the trends that they see.