Creative Korean Advertising #6: Monsieur J (뮤슈제이) and New Male-centered Narratives in Cosmetics Advertisements
As I discussed last week, it turns out that women find the feeling of confidence that a man gets from wearing his own favorite cologne or deodorant much sexier than the actual scents themselves, rating the attractiveness of men in videos wearing them much higher than those men wearing brands that the men themselves didn’t personally like or none at all. Naturally, this has many implications that are by no means just confined to gift-giving and the “smelly” industries, but by applying that new knowledge to Korea specifically I realized that most cosmetics for men at least were still advertised here as if the consumers were women, for whom commercials tend to focus on the act of applying the product and seeing the effects on their skin and so forth rather on than the supposed effects on the opposite sex. To put it mildly, after regularly seeing the ensuing images of half-naked men caressing and smelling each other’s skins on television, then I and most other expats can hardly be blamed for being left with stereotypes of Korean men as being somewhat effeminate as a result.
But this dominant narrative from the industry does seem to be finally changing, the most recent commercial I looked at in that post giving viewers the impression that, well, using the product would get the man laid, a message that most male consumers are familiar with and can easily relate to. I don’t how far behind the curve Korean cosmetic brands are compared to larger international brands in this regard – if at all – but they do seem to be making up for last time, the Korean actor Jung Woo-sung (정우성) launching his own brand called “Monsieur J” (무슈제이) last month with advertisements and commercials that…how to put it? They are masculine enough that, although I won’t be rushing out to buy any bottles of the stuff myself (I’m married), I still would not personally be embarrassed to have my Western male friends know that I use it, which is literally the first time I’ve been able to say that of any Korean cosmetic product for males after 8 years of living here.
Being so revolutionary in its own right then, naturally I find the following commercial to be quite creative too, although its overall style would probably be quite familiar to Western viewers (so maybe Korean brands are indeed catching up):
If you liked that, then you’ll probably like this 60-second version even more:
True, the commercial isn’t without its flaws, my own personal criticisms being the somewhat gormless look on Jung Woo-sung’s face above the water towards the end, and particularly the suspended bottle of the cologne in the closing scene: you can virtually feel the string holding up it up. I think a much more serious general criticism though, is the combined launching with G-Market, an online Korean auction site that looks like a hyperreal version of a webpage from 1997, complete with at least 40 rapidly flashing GIFs. Not only that, but it has all the class and sophistication that one might expect from a site offering everything from, say, dildos and staplers to hearing aids and socks, the combined effect of which is to *cough* somewhat detract from the classy, Hugh Grant-like image Jung Woo-sung himself is promoting, with many more pictures like those in this post available here, here, here, and here if you’re so inclined.
Note that those are only photobookish pictorials though, with advertisements like this one below (source) being like what most people would ever actually see. True, the G-market logo and web-address in this particular example seem quite minimalist, but still…it’s G-market! My wife bought decidedly unsexy bibs for our baby daughter from there just yesterday! Was an arrangement with the company really necessary for physically selling the product?
In contrast to the pictorials though, images of the launching event itself leave me feeling somewhat cold (and puzzled) myself, and I don’t just mean because of the season:
There was actually a woman wearing lingerie amongst those models too (see here), who may have (literally) appeared somewhat out of place but in all seriousness may actually have been more important to the event than many of her male counterparts, her two roles there possibly being to: first, maintain the attention of male reporters, no matter how interested in fashion already (or not), the event to all intents and purposes seeming to consist of little more then men walking around in their underwear holding examples of the Monsieur J line (which certainly sounds somewhat tedious to me); and secondly, to also provide eye-candy for reporters from “sports” newspapers especially, providing free advertising for the product via captions to pictures of her. In this second role however, she probably proved quite superfluous given the other celebrity celebrities that also attended, including Jessica Gomes on the right (source); for more on her them, see PopSeoul’s report on the event here.
(For all posts in my “Creative Korean Advertising” series, see here)
Seriously, what the…..
I don’t know about masculine but still exceedingly melodramatic – oh, how east asians love melodrama.
Brings me back to a discussion in the comments here about the “western veneer” – seems like their trying to replicate what they see from the west without understanding it’s intent – where exactly is the sex? and will “I hate you” succesfully sell a product – maybe in Korea.
Had a discussion recently with a student of mine who has a degree in advertising – she doesn’t understand why “foreigners” say advertising is all about sex – maybe that’s why she is working in some other field.
Hmmm,
maybe it’s a sign of how long I’ve been here that I define virtually any depiction of men in commercials that isn’t blatantly homoerotic as “masculine”. Seriously though, I think the whole commercial is all about giving the man a strong persona, a successful and passionate but also tormentex writer perhaps, which with me being a rather pretentious writer myself does personally have a certain appeal just in itself. But the sex element? Sure, there’s no T&A per se, but in one scense he is sitting in bed with a woman lying face down in it with, perchance, a rather satisfied look on her face, and I’m not entirely sure but think that it’s not the same woman in all the four scenes that feature a woman in them. Regardless, while the sexual success that ensues from being the successful writer or whatever is subtler than in most commercials, it’s definitely there.
To be fair though, in the post I did emphasize the blunt “buy this and you’ll get laid” aspect of most advertising aimed at men, and its definitely not in-your-face masculine in that sense. And I hear what you’re saying about the melodrama and the commercial having a Western veneer, but lacking the beef so to speak. Still, it’s the first Korean example of its type (as far as I know), and commercials like it will surely get more sophisticated over time.
But finally, although I’d be the first to point out how stupid most Korean English slogans are, the “I hate you” slogan is still very in keeping with the persona, and no more or less bizarre than many slogans by native speakers (and not just in the cosmetics industry). And it does also make you do a double-take when you first see it, yes?
Hi. My name is Cho ji yong and I am a student of PYEONGTAEK University. First of all I appreciate your consideration for Korea. I would like to introduce Korean culture more by e-mail
Please, Check your e-mail from jiplus@naver.com
Cho ji yong, let me refer you to Stafford’s response to your “Korea Sparkling” widget idea here. I might also add how disingenuous it is to ask those bloggers already by definition promoting Korea to the world to clutter their websites with it.
Really, no one sued D-market fr causing epilepsy yet?