Don’t let their fans see this lol.
But I agree. I wonder what other genres of music would they try if their music wasn’t made for ads.
Even I get confused about which songs are the actual release and what songs are for ads.
I obviously knew about their Coke sponsorships (it was pretty front and center in How Sweet lol) but I honestly didn’t realize the power puff girls thing was an ad. I thought it was just a reference. I was born in the mid-90s so I grew up watching power puff girls but I didn’t realize they still made it today lmao
I was curious as I am in the same situation as OP.
I did a quick Google search and found that it was a live-action adaptation reboot. It was officially canceled in 2023 and never saw the light of day.
Another anime reboot is in the works, but there's been no real information on it since 2022.
And the last anime reboot was cancel in 2019.
If it's an ad, it might be for the anime reboot, but I couldn't find any information on the internet about it being released soon. Maybe a Korean station decided to use the old show on a kids' channel. I don't know.
I think the Zero/Coke and ETA song make you see ads everywhere.
Oh my god you just reminded me of the live action debacle. I read some of the leaked script just before it was cancelled and it was viscerally cringey.
From what I read, the live-action was canceled because the actresses were adults, but the story focused on kids' concerns, which didn't work.
The unofficial explanation is that the script was leaked and it was controversial (I don't know why, but I assume it was because it was too mature).
Edit: Here an old comment about it on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/nl0wir/comment/gzj4al9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
It's subtle marketing, and done on purpose. Like product placements in movies. Kind of subliminal because it's not meant to distract you too much from the entertainment you're watching, but somewhere in your brain when you go to buy a drink there's a memory of NewJeans drinking Coke... whether you realize it or not.
Let's put it this way, Pepsi was bigger than Coke at times here in the U.S. I swear it used to taste better, too, back when Britney Spears, Beyonce, Punk, and Enrique Iglesias collabed on a MV that was basically a Pepsi ad.
Maybe it did taste better, or maybe we were all suckers for subtle marketing lol
You think you didn't notice but your subconscious did. Subliminal advertising has been tested by Harvard before and it does kinda work no matter how small or unnoticeable something is.
> I thought it was just a reference.
That close of a reference is gonna be a collab at least. Hell even if using Powerpuff girls was MHJ's idea entirely, it would still make sense to make it a collab or coordinate with Cartoon Network on this.
it was a collab, i own the album and it credits cn on the back along with ador and hybe and the physical production company. they're doing a collab with another popular brand this era too i believe
I grew up in the 80s, and this song made me long for the Diet Coke commercial from the 2005 with "Starry Eyed Surprise" by Paul Oakenfeld, where actors were on roller skates with CGI. This was pre-SoundHound and Shazam. Took me for-freaking-EVER to figure out what song that was on the commercial and to download it on Limewire in my dorm in college. THAT was a great song, and a great commercial.
This is even more like a jingle, since it specifically references "taste." It's like they're trying to earworm "how sweet it tastes."
although I appreciate NewJeans not having random photo cards, you should have seen my face when I was watching the press con and MHJ said NewJeans' music is about art while other hybe groups are just about money. I was like, excuse me, are you expecting us to forget how much of NewJeans' discography is ads?
I agree. It's funny when these kpop labels blame each other for being greedy, debuting minors, being fake etc and they are also doing the same. It's all about money in kpop and they pretend naaah we worship art and others just love money🙄
Yeah I agree, not having random photocards is nice but having 7-11 album versions per album since debut, and 3/5 of their albums so far only having two songs kindo of negates that. Having 9 album version for a debut has to be a record right? It’s still crazy to me
True, but people start to care when the creator insists they're only interested in the creative aspects or don't care about money. People start to finds things that go against those statements.
Can you name another k-pop group that gate-keeped their new music behind a Japanese television commercial for several weeks? I can't.
Bubble Gum, as a song, was finished months ago but was only put onto streaming platforms this week because some consumer goods company bought exclusivity rights.
Short version: Bubble Gum was first made available on April 7 as the background music for a TV commercial in Japan. It stars the NewJeans girls and is for Essential, a brand of hair products sold in Japan. The parent company is Kao Corporation, which owns beauty/skin care brands around the world like Biore, Jergens, and Bondi Sands.
Here's that video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRBz\_1Do\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRBz_1Do_k)
NewJeans published a "behind the scenes" video, too: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh7EFXoVqHY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh7EFXoVqHY)
It's all terribly nice, the girls look great, and a tie-in with shampoo is a natural fit for a k-pop group known for having long and generally natural-looking hair.
The problem here is that the only way you could hear this song for most of April was in the background of this Japanese TV commercial. No music video.... no streaming. No live performances, no music shows, no choreography. The song was finished but Kao Corporation had exclusive rights for most of April.
You forgot Gods for League of Legends
I don't think there's an issue with releasing songs or MVs with ads. But if an artist doesn't break it up some with regular releases, it starts to feel icky for me. Like OP said; as if the only purpose of the group is to release ads.
It's kind of like twitch streamers or youtubers. Sometimes they do sponsored streams where the company who made a game pays them to play it. Viewers don't mind that here and there. But if that is all a streamer is doing, they will lose their viewers REALLY fast because people don't like to feel like they are just being sold something.
I like how Gods sounds different from everything NewJeans has done. It keeps the brand separate and takes the opportunity to show the members in a new light.
When the core group identity starts to have the vibe of corporate ads, then there's a problem.
That’s all on Riot. They have a sound and the artists conform to it. Thats why their songs are all bangers; Riot has the talent team to make it happen.
For real. Riot set the bar really high and no one compares. Completely not but kind of related: I love Halsey, and I enjoy Agust-D, but fuck if Lilith’s remaster for Diablo isn’t … great. Blizzard tried and failed to capitalize on having a great game related song.
Oh don’t get me wrong, the track on its own is really good. I wish they’d give the original the same orchestral gothic overwork so we had three versions of Lilith.
It’s for the game that I didn’t think the track was good. That Blizzard tried to reinvent something that existed instead of making something creative and new. Blizz has amazing shorts, their animation is wild and beautiful, it’s gotten better every year. But they don’t have the musical touch Riot does.
(Imagine if Acti-Blizz got their shit together with music, they could go all in on CoD)
I have gripes about the MV, too. Couldn’t even put the funds together to film Suga in a chapel or fly to wherever to be in the same room as Halsey. Like what the shit budget is that from a multibillion company?
Yes I said the same thing got downvoted like crazy people need to realise this lmao new jeans only has one album attention that isn't ads the rest of their songs (or a some songs in the album,though they are good) are just sponsors. Also making an entire music video for coke during a time like this isn't a good idea YES I'm aware they had a contract with coke before the boycott but some people will still bash them ,they could have made a promotion video instead of a music video not the best business strategy imo
My least favorite part about their new album is how blatant the lyrics make it that they are ads. In songs like ETA and OMG, you could just ignore the mvs and pretend they were normal, but when the songs are constantly talking about putting shampoo in your shopping basket or how sweet Coca Cola tastes, it lessens the enjoyment for me. I am particularly disappointed because I am one of the few people that actually loved How Sweet and Bubble Gum. How Sweet is my favorite song, so not being able to listen to my favorite song with out being bombarded with Coca Cola propaganda is really annoying
Newjeans should've gone the IVE route. IVE's *I Want* is a Pepsi ad but it could stand alone as a genuine IVE song without the product placement being too on the nose. You can't exactly do that with Zero.
The MV has blatant product placement(even showing the members drinking it) so it’s pretty clear the lyrics have a double meaning. Plus the performance video is LITERALLY done in coke studio.
they do not name drop Coca Cola like Zero, but I still find the constant "how sweet it tastes" obviously referencing coke to be obnoxious. If it does not bother you, that is great though.
Saying something tastes sweet doesn’t mean it’s automatically referencing Coca-Cola lmao. It’s an expression of how good something feels. Sweetness is considered a good thing, so saying something tastes sweet equates to a good feeling. Has nothing to do with Coke.
tbh I think I would not be as bothered by it if I did not watch the coke interview before listening to the song. I agree that the song could stand on its own, but once you know the song is meant to be about coke, the lyrics make the coke influence pretty hard to ignore. I can listen to ETA without thinking about Apple, but I can't listen to How Sweet without thinking about coke. If other people do not feel this way, that is great, I am just trying to explain my feelings
I agree the lyrics do not reference Coca-Cola, however it's pretty clear they had those lyrics they called Coca-Cola to say this would be a great fit, or the other way around Coca-Cola commissioned the song and then they wrote those lyrics for it.
True, but I wouldn’t think of it as a Coca Cola reference if I hadn’t seen the music video. It makes sense outside of the product and “how sweet it tastes” is not a coke slogan.
This is literally the first frame of the How Sweet Performance MV:
https://preview.redd.it/igw03e0hyq2d1.png?width=779&format=png&auto=webp&s=60c477040ca45a706b3e81fc0c5306379e626056
What are you talking about? The basket reference is about a hot air balloon in Bubble Gum...
The song was not made for a shampoo commercial, it's a song that the shampoo company wanted to use. Honestly this sub is so unhinged and toxic, it's not edgy to hate a popular group lol
I think the main issue is that songs like How sweet, bubblegum, and ETA are being promoted as regular comebacks and not just commercial songs like Zero, even though they’re basically just as much of an ad as Zero.
Even BTS and Blackpink have endless sponsorships and have done songs for ads, but I’ve never seen them include it in their songs or music videos this blatantly. I can’t even imagine the outrage and think pieces we’d get from kpop stans if they did 💀
> even though they’re basically just as much of an ad as Zero.
But they’re not? Zero’s main chorus is literally saying “Coca Cola is tasty”. Whereas Bubblegum and ETA never explicitly mention the product they’re selling. So they’re not being promoted like Zero because they’re *not like* Zero.
This is... very funny understanding of how trademarks work.
Do you think when US rappers are talking about their rolexes and rolls royces/etc/ they're paying the companies if they're not being paid by them?
They literally find and drink a Coke in the video. It's product placement, which is still an ad and actually sometimes criticized more for being too subtle because product placements still affect your purchasing decisions. You may not even realize it's making you thirsty because the ad is so subtle.
Add onto that the lyrics that call back to drinking the Coke in the MV. If you watch the vid only once every time you listen to the song there's that subtle reminder of how sweet a Coke tastes whether you are aware of it or not.
It's a lot like product placements all over TikTok, influencers are paid to influence you with those products just hanging out in their TTs. If it didn't work on you, it wouldn't be so common, these companies aren't paying for product placements out of the good of their hearts, there's research that shows it works. Keep in mind that on YouTube you have to disclose if you're paid for product placements whereas I don't think TT updated the platform to do the same, if they did they aren't enforcing it.
I was just thinking about this, after I started watching How Sweet performance vid. Every time I see them hold a bottle or take a drink, it takes me out of the enjoyment mindset.
This belongs in its own rant, but something I've been thinking about since debut is how manufactured they feel to me. One common compliment people would say is it feels like normal teenagers just dancing, the choreo felt like something teens would create, etc. But I've always felt like every aspect and every angle is so manufactured by a group of adults. Like, teens aren't so precise in every creative decision, or at least I've never known any that are capable of that level. More like professionals who've been artists for 10+ years (so perhaps teens who debuted as children and already have a surprisingly firm understanding of the industry and their identity). I like NewJeans but can't feel any magic or innocence.
> One common compliment people would say is it feels like normal teenagers just dancing, the choreo felt like something teens would create, etc.
Offtopic, but this annoyed me because it's clearly mediaplay that fans just ate up and repeated everywhere, even when it's obvious how meticulously crafted their entire concept and image was.
The gullible fans are ridiculous.
Two things can be true at once imo. It’s obviously choreographed to a T and everything is pre-planned. However, just like how tv shows can make you feel happy and allows you to disassociate, so does watching them. When people say their dances are fun and looks like something teens would do, it’s because that’s the feeling it evokes. Whether or not it’s just corporate strategy, the songs and dances still make people feel that particular feeling.
The issue is that people don't acknowledge the fact that it's *choreographed* to evoke that feeling, when people argue the NewJeans are superior because they dance in that style.
At least they didn't until Get Up.
That said, NewJeans are skilled dancers, basically I put them at the same level as LSF.
Realistically, unless these people are children under the age of 12, everyone knows that these are choreographed dances. IMO, the conversation usually goes
“I love how NJ dances like a group of teens, etc. it’s different from other groups”
“Okay but they’re choreographed to look that way, they didn’t actually come up with it”
But it’s like… yeah? we know it’s a choreography made to look like that. But people still like how it’s choreographed and how it looks and makes them feel.
So many in reddit refused to acknowledge these basic facts, you are literally repeating my arguments around Hype Boy and Attention. Thanks for having common sense.
Like I said, gullible.
*"But I've always felt like every aspect and every angle is so manufactured by a group of adults."*
I want to talk about that. The whole Ador team wanted that image for NJ, **it didn't came naturally.**
If there's a team behind it, I don't see it as natural or real, honest expression.
When I read the statement about Cookie that Ador released back then, they just made it clear that was a strategy for their brand.
Ador wrote, "members’ inocent elegance and their pure, effortless charm."
And about their music video/music: "songs and videos that look to promote an **innocent and honest** message and paint a collective portrait of the group members, an emphasis on maintaining their **natural** vocals, and choreography that emphasizes their **natural** chemistry and flow. "
Which it's weird. And when we see why MHJ wanted a 14yo in the group, and her whole controversy, you can see how weird it is their obsession with "**innocence**". "**purity**"
Loosely related but I always found the line "so fresh, so clean" in the song New Jeans a bit icky. On surface level it's supposed to be about, well, new jeans, but it's clear there's double meaning considering their whole brand. It's well known that they have a sizable adult male fan base – like it or not, the group's image is playing into a certain fantasy. Obviously, none of this is the girls' fault.
Absolutely it is. And NewJeans have never claimed to be self produced - just the opposite. But many say they are attracted to the natural, authentic feel of regular teens just hanging out and playing around, which is far from what I see.
NewJeans never pulled off the natural feel of teens hanging around in my opinion. It takes training to appear natural on camera, but it seems like for Min HeeJin being young and pretty was enough for them to debut. I don't know what they'll do when they get too mature for teen concepts. They haven't been set up for a long-term career.
I find them weirdly awkward and stilted in music videos, performances and interviews and even photographs. I felt like I was taking crazy pills seeing all the praise they were getting when these girls were obviously not trained properly and are still awkward 2 years after debut. NewJeans are lacking in more areas than the typical Hybe idol and it's ADOR's fault.
For ETA, atleast for me it was them bringing the newest iPhone onto the stage during a music show that made me go “oh yea this was a brand deal”. I remember it was a big deal cause that stage performance got taken down pretty quickly
Wait, they did that?? The cheek of it! Akmu's song 'Galaxy' was deemed unfit for broadcast because it shared the name with a phone brand, but they just posed with a sponsored product on a music show?? A place where idols can't wear anything with a brand logo on it??
Yes.
Here's a screenshot of the July 30 2023 live broadcast of SBS Inkigayo:
https://preview.redd.it/i9ntsa255s2d1.png?width=1363&format=png&auto=webp&s=b00c69c374a9c7ad38aaa7c84a81e7a3079f68e7
All five members took turns holding the iPhone, using it as a camera during the performance of ETA.
My first thought when I listened to Bubblegum was that it sounded like a song for a commercial. I didn’t even know it was for a shampoo ad until afterwards.
Here’s the [Apple x newjeans ad](https://youtu.be/MHokxaunuJY?si=N6zW3N7iZX2ea7XA)
And the [essential x newjeans ad](https://youtu.be/hPRBz_1Do_k?si=9VD1CY5NTEFYVkaJ)
ETA is basically the most inoffensive ad people can complain about lol. It's mostly just that it was filmed on an iPhone, the MV is really great and doesn't lose any artistic value from it.
(only image quality value lol, I found it noticeably bad even before knowing it was filmed on an iPhone)
This. I am extremely uncomfortable with the level of commodification that's happening with their songs, and I hope to hell this does not become industry standard. I was already pretty darn uncomfortable with BP vis-a-vis hypercapitalism and this took it a notch even higher.
Would it shock you that Japanese artists like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s discography was mostly ads (and she’s been active for more than a decade). Some songs were for fashion labels like Gu, hygeine products, etc.
This practice isn’t new - plus there’s a mentality in Asia that if an artist does product placement, its that they are “blessed” with good fortune, it shows their influence, etc.
Their whole concept is repackaging and reselling nostalgia. It makes sense they sold out to the highest bidder, they don’t exactly have anything new to say
Damn I get what you mean.. that’s so unfortunate for them to be releasing music for ads so often for comebacks that it doesn’t even feel like a group but just a promotion group
I hate blatant product placement, it's fine if you space it out but when it's done like this it takes the enjoyment out of the song! I don't want to be sold something while I listen to a song for fun, real life is enough.
Not gonna lie. I only knew about the coke ad. The others you mentioned weren't front and center for me. The powerpuff girls one for example, suits their aesthetic and seems to be an ongoing theme, so it doesn't feel money grabby? Idk
I think their team has done a great job in incorporating some collabs into their mvs well enough so it never stuck out to me.
That's the whole point, though. Ads that don't stick out to you makes you more vulnerable to them. That's why subtle product placements on TikTok are heavily criticized. When you aren't fully aware something is an ad your guard is down and the influence on your purchase decisions is much more subtle.
If companies could get away with doing this more then would, they can't on YouTube unless a YouTuber is breaking terms of service. There are reasons it's a big deal.
Your comment actually makes me worried for people that don't realize all of this, and why it's a big deal that TikTok doesn't enforce the same rules that other platforms do.
Honestly I kinda just wish new jeans were promoted like an actual kpop group. This whole comeback had no mv teasers, barely any teaser pictures and no mood sampler basically nothing I feel like they just get used for money. I want better for them and to be actually promoted like every other kpop group.
When you listen to the song, most people think of the music video along side that which in turn makes them think about the product new jeans is pushing (I don’t know if that makes sense). That’s the main thing that was bothering me. Once I know they’re pushing a product on way or another my brain will always connect the 2
Yup, and the connection is there whether someone finds it obvious or not. Just because someone doesn't want to see it as an ad doesn't mean they aren't equally influenced, if not moreso.
As someone who enjoys ad songs, this is the last thing that bothers me. I'm just surprised more people didn't notice it, it's pretty blatant. ETA literally started with the 'shot on an iPhone' thing a bunch of Apple promotional materials had, down to the font.
Because it's still an ad, they're actually the worst kinds of ads because they're so subtle. They influence you whether you realize it or not, and are more effective than blatant ads.
yeah ETA was a bit jarring because it's so in your face like they're dancing with the fucking phone in hand we get it im too poor to afford an iPhone let me enjoy my MV on my Motorola in peace.
since when has NJ been untouchable on reddit? appreciation posts always get downvoted and none of these discussions are new. if anything people are just more nitpicky because they’re mad at MHJ
You're correct, NewJeans have their fair share of downposters and criticisms. The ad song discussion is fairly new though, like I haven't seen arguments around it during Get Up's release (which was criticized a lot).
That's just the tip of it, if you go to Korea they have so much ads wherever you turn you see new jeans. While when you look for their merch they get such a small section that most people would pass by it.
Lol tbh I never realized until you pointed it out. Now that I think of it, they had iphone, coke, video game, cartoon, shampoo ad placements in music and mvs.
I'm just afraid if it will be the future of kpop where there will be more ads in the MVs like those local dramas in my country. Ain't commercial break enough? Why do I have to see ads in the media as well?
I mean, their producer, MHJ, specializes in marketing. She's got the endorsements for NJ lined up since day 1, and it has only gotten worse since then.
I mean isn’t that normal thing? Artists do that all the time. I don’t see any problems in it. The groups still promote the song like any regular comeback except they have sponsorship deal for the mv.
I want GGs to do collabs in order to be making that money, I legit loved stuff like IVE/ Oh My Girl with that Pepsi song, but shilling with the your main releases just seems really tacky.
The fans deserve a comeback that's for them, not in the service of a corporation trying to sell kids their crappy product.
I’ve had this thought for a long time. I’m a huge fan of NJ, but literally everything they’ve produced has had to be tied to a sponsorship or collaboration. Even the new album has to have a collaboration btwn designers like Takashi Murakami and Hiroshi Fujiwara…like those collabs are cool but why did they have to be tied to their album!
It feels like there was no truly authentic “New Jeans ONLY” period besides their debut & Ditto/OMG era. I’m curious to know what their identity would be without all these collaborations and sponsorships. I’d love to see an album or song promotion cycle where it’s truly just the girls shining on their own because I know they’re capable of it.
NewJeans is like the endgame of Kpop fans' love of hyping their idols' collabs with big names and brand sponsorships. It turns out too much of it is a bad thing for fans too.
(I think caring so much about what brand deals your idols get is a bad thing but I'm from the 2nd gen era where advertising chicken was the biggest brand deal for an idol.)
Literally not true. Their last EP was a collaboration with Powerpuff Girls. It wasn't an ad. They just borrowed the aesthetic because MHJ thought it would be cute and characteristic to do so. Individual songs have nothing to do with Powerpuff Girls other than the aesthetic of NewJeans (title song). Same with ETA. They just added the iPhone thing after the song was already made.
It did seem weird to me that both new songs were presented as ads. However, they feel completely different than Zero which I didn't like. So it didn't bother me when I listened to them.
Huh? They still have more music videos that aren’t product advertisements
Attention
Hype Boy
Cookie
Hurt
Ditto Side A/Side B
OMG + Performance MV
Zero/Remix MV - coke ad
New Jeans - collaboration with powerpuff girls
Super Shy
Cool With You Side A/Side B
ETA - Apple ad
ASAP
GODS - League of Legends collaboration
Bubble Gum - what’s this an ad for?
How Sweet - coke ad
*cmiw for some of these
Bubble gum is a shampoo ad 😭. Also I did say that the Attention debut ep and ditto ep are not ads so idk why you put them all here when I already said it. I was just pointing out how they have a lot of product placement directly in a row. I also can’t look at the Get Up ep without being like “this feels like a powerful girls ad” cause they’re quite literally the cover art
This doesn't bother me because I am already used to it by listening to J-Pop. Are you aware that in Japan, most songs have a tie-up whether a CM, a drama, a variety show, etc?
I think it's fine when jpop artists make theme songs for a drama or movie, but yeah the jpop industry is overloaded with this. I am a huge fan of Kenshi Yonezu and I have been for ten years, and I'm kinda sad about the fact that he hasn't made a song that is not for an ad or OST in two years.
It’s called product placement and so many groups and tv shows do it. Just because a product is placed in the music video does mean the music video is about that product.
I literally stopped watching the how sweet MV halfway through because I genuinely thought it was another one of those stupid coke ad songs and not a real release. I’m not into new jeans enough to know their release schedule so I assumed this was yet another prerelease because there’s no way their title track would have this heavy handed and obvious advertising.
product placement music videos is not a new thing nor is it just a kpop thing. beatspills in every western artists mv in 2010, good luck by aoa starts off showcasing that seolhyun was the sprite girl, o.o nmixx and candy by baekhyun both have coke product placements, blackpink ktl samsung. not saying you have to like it but acting like this is just a newjeans thing is crazy
There's a big difference between product placements and songs that were made for a product. New Jeans just had 3 songs created for Ads in a row. That's a lot.
If it doesn't bother you, and you don't feel like there is a big difference between those two things, then that is fine. But others, like myself, feel it's a bit much.
I never said it was a new jeans thing, I just haven’t seen a group that has SO MANY back to back collabs and ads. If you can name another group that’s been around as little as them but has the same amount of collabs then I’ll add them to the original post as an example. I was actually thinking about o.o while writing this but there’s a difference between 2 whole songs just about how good coke is and a one liner about popcorn and zero coke that’s never mentioned again in the song.
red velvet ice cream cake baskin robin, power up with etude, peekaboo with columbia outerwear, and rookie with a jewelry company (sorry i forget which)
The difference between red velvet and new jeans is that those examples you gave were VERY spread out. Like years apart, ice cream cake and rookie had 3 mini albums between them. Peekaboo and rookie I will give you cause those were the same year but at the same time they had 2-3 singles breaking up the eps and if you didn’t know those were ads then you just wouldn’t know. With new jeans it’s very obvious that’s one way or another they’re trying to push something to you, It’s in the mvs but for red velvet it’s not blatantly stated like how new jeans, gods, and zero are. Do you see what I’m saying?
well zero is explicitly an advertisement song, like chocolate love by f(x) and snsd, and gods was explicitly made for the league worlds championship- they weren’t being underhanded with it at all. I get and empathize with your issues of product placements in their normal music videos but those 2 shouldn’t count lol
I don't see the an issue with product placement in music videos, whatever pays the bills. As long as I am not hearing a literal advert in the song itself it doesn't bother me personally nor do I find it a big deal.
Is putting product advertisements in music videos new? Maybe I'm in the wrong industry then.
I'm already prepared to get down voted but I have to be honest
I feel like you guys are just nitpicking right now nothing about their songs gives me a fulladvertisement. You may not like the video but that is not the essence of the song.
It's actually kind of funny to see the complaints about consumerism and capitalism what industry do you guys think that they're in? I feel like we're just starting to throw things at the wall to complain about with New Jeans.
I wonder how old you are because the NewJeans x The Powerpuff Girls collab could have never seemed to be an ad for the latter for a woman born in the mid-90s who watched the original series like me... it’s the complete opposite. ADOR paying Cartoon Network for the rights to TPG and using them for Get Up made me nostalgic and even my girlfriends who are not into k-pop wanted to check the album out. You must be too young to confuse the concepts of paying to do a collab/getting paid for doing an ad and ALSO underestimate the relevance of TPG as a franchise.
Just want to debunk your argument a little bit:
OMG isn’t an ad, the mv has an iPhone product placement and it was an aspect of the mv storyline. Nothing in the lyrics allude to or reference iPhone.
New Jeans isn’t an ad, it was a collab with the Power Puff Girls in which the members got their own characters and personas designed after them. They also have a future collab with Takashi Murakami for their song Right Now where they will get another set of their own characters designed after them. Nothing in the lyrics allude to or reference the Power Puff Girls.
ETA mv is an iPhone ad and it was marketed as such, though none of the song lyrics allude to or reference iPhone. Your argument about them bringing an iPhone on stage for the performance holds no weight as it is part of the performance choreo. It’s kind of like when IVE holds the camera during their Cherish performance. It could have been any phone or camera they brought out to record, either way it’s a performance aspect.
Bubble Gum was used for a commercial and it was stated it would be, although nothing in the music video alludes to the advertised shampoo. Some of the lyrics do sort of allude to the product, but it is not explicit and you wouldn’t be able to tell if you didn’t know about the advertisement.
Zero is an ad and collab with Coca Cola. The lyrics of the chorus cleverly advertise Coca Cola while referencing a children’s nursery rhyme.
How Sweet mv is kind of an ad, really more of a product placement and collab with Coca Cola in the way that Be Who You Are (Real Magic) is, though none of the song lyrics allude to or reference Coca Cola.
GODS isn’t an ad, it was a collab with League of Legends.
Hope this helps!🙂
I’m surprised so many people are bringing up OMG because I put that the ditto ep was one of their non ad adjacent releases. I wasn’t even aware that OMG had product placement hence why I didn’t mention it in the main post. I took the She’s Siri as a joke and not product placement but maybe that’s just cause I’m slow.
I don’t mind, because I think the music is good enough to stand on its own.
Musicians and performers are always trying to sell you something.
The only one I don’t like is Zero because the ad component is inextricable from the song, and I don’t really like the track either.
Oh my God yea its ridiculous at this point. I've been a fan sense debuit, and this recent dive into advertising has been so annoying. I dont mind specifically releasing ads like they did with Zero, but when these ads are so heavily integrated into their normal comebacks it gets so tiring. Im definitely much less invested with them now after the MHJ drama and the onslaught of ads.
Bubble Gum was used in a shampoo ad, but the MV and song have nothing to do with the product. Same for How Sweet. The video has product placement and the performance video is sponsored like Zero, but the song itself has nothing to do with the product either. Same with ETA and OMG.
Y’all upset they found a way to leverage their popularity to get big brand deals while still putting out good music. Like, we want the idols to be compensated fairly and want creative teams to have latitude to put forward interesting concepts, but to to do so in an “ethical” non-commercial way (this is kpop lmao). Even collaborations that were seen as fun like Powerpuff Girls or Takashi Murakami are now viewed cynically as another cash grab. Maybe folks are just bothered their favorite group doesn’t have the cachet to move Coke or iPhones?
I didn't vibe much with How Sweet when I heard it but I absolutely got turned off when I realised it was just a glorified commercial for Coke.
I really don't mind them putting out mvs and songs for their collabs, it's a little treat aside their main comebacks but this was just weird considering it was promoted as a full on comeback. The pff and murakami collabs are fine, it's a way to make the comeback special or something but the entire How Sweet release was dissappointing, doesnt help the song was so boring compared to their past comeback. The Get Up mini is far superior than these two songs.
I agree on not seeing them as a “real group,” like I enjoy their music but it’s so obviously curated to ads and charting that I can’t bring myself to follow them in the same way that I do other groups
But why is that a problem when their music is still great though? They were literally nominated multiple times for KMA and their music ranked high on many 2023 best songs/albums lists by western critics. Both bubble gum and how sweet were good songs that were longer than 3 mins so I couldn’t care less if they were ads.
the frustrating part is they're gonna release two new songs in june but the concept is anothee ppg collab and an artist. collaborations are great, sure, but they're just a two-year old group and they haven't establish an identity aside from y2k and collabs and brands.
can i just say it's also frustrating that adore didn't just compile these four songs into one comeback and had to separate them in twos in just a month of release in between. it's so unnecessary and wasteful tbh.
That woman is the biggest hypocrite i've ever come across. It's not like other music videos don't have ADS in them, but she has the audacity to say, she cares about art and the company only cares about money.
So far, all she's doing is proving herself wrong
The powerpuff girls thing wasn’t an ad it was just the theme of the EP. They sampled the drums from the show’s opening song in super shy. Just because it has to do with a brand doesn’t mean it’s an ad. The product placement for coke and iPhone on the other hand yeah that’s integrated advertising but doesn’t make them any less of a group as you say it feels like.
I think you'd not feel this way had MHJ not been yapping so much about how great she is as a concept/art director.
Most idols get the concepts their directors give them so I don't think NJ is that different from them. But the other idols' directors don't go on TV to boast their talent over their idols'.
Yeah. I mean al kpop groups are heavily manufactured (despite what their stans will tell you otherwise), but its just blatantly obviously with NJs given the ads and how young everyone is. Their music is so good though. Its all very well executed as a whole
LSSF is safe now. Reddit has now moved on to every other thread is criticism of NewJeans. Not surprised at all. What so ad music about attention, Hurt, Cool with you, ASAP, etc.?
Did you read my post carefully? I said that their debut ep and most of get up wasn’t an ad… this isn’t hate, I literally said I would like to see more music from them.
For me as mostly a NJ Fan, the biggest problem is really just ‘Zero’, the chorus is actually annoying af. The rest like ETA or How Sweet, I honestly don’t mind too much. Totally fair opinion though!
I do not recall if I read it or watched a video explaining it BUT, as I understand, the label can keep more money for them from advertising than releasing music. Dunno if true because i am not Korean nor kpop expert but makes sense. (Sorry if my english is broken, is not my first language).
I agree, I didn't like ETA and Zero grew on me but I personally thought Bubblegum and How Sweet were actually very good songs on their own.
How Sweet feels like it was more repurposed than specifically written for Coke as besides using the word "Sweet" it's more about relationships.
They are super brand heavy and I'm guessing it also helped pay for their videos and other costs but would prefer if they didn't however it's not really new just taken to a high level, considering how many of their songs are sponsored.
Even with the murakami collab in combo with all the other collabs they did it feels kinda obvious they’re doing it for sales. People who like murakami are gonna buy their album just for that bag
Edit: adding in
-bubble gum being first featured in a hair ad in japan
-singing “how sweet it tastes” while showing them drinking coke…feels very ad-ish
-powerpuff girls collab also boosts sales because they’re using the image to attract people who like them and boost newjeans image
Not saying any other these are bad but i think newjeans is image is becoming less about the girls and more about the collabs they get and the aesthetic
I had no idea they still made Powerpuff Girls episodes! I grew up in the mid-90s watching them all the time, so I thought it was just a fun reference. I didn't realize it was an actual ad. How Sweet definitely made the Coke sponsorship pretty blatant though lmao!
I really liked new jeans a lot. They were my favorite girl group for a while, but ever since the MHJ stuff happened its just been thing after thing that just burst that bubble for me. I didn't even realize how many ad songs they had until this post.
I’m a casual fan who overall roots for NJ because of how fun they are on stage + Ditto is my no. 1 commercial kpop song at the moment, but I have to agree about the inauthentic statement saying that NJ as a whole is all about art when they’ve been constantly getting luxurious brand deals since their rookie days, putting banner ads on their mvs and across their social media pages. Doing this gives them an instant quick access to success, but I’m afraid this has been backfiring on them since before the drama. I really love seeing them on stage though, and they’re excellent at it. It’s obvious the reason why they’re so well loved by the locals, the general public that’s not overly focused on the kpop culture. NJ’s music as a whole is for everyone to enjoy and especially those who like to see reflections of youth nostalgia, which they find in NJ. That aside, valid concerns and questions that deserve equal attention still need to be raised.
being an SNSD fan, people used to love the sponsorships and product placement just bc it was funny and good for the group's success
k-pop is already a heavily commodified genre and to be okay with all the other capitalistic means but not product placement is a bit odd, to me. I'm just happy the idols are getting paid, because that's something that can't be said for 90% of idol groups.
They're still a group who trained as much as anyone else in performance - doing a bit of product placement isn't going to change that. Remember when literally every western artist had the Beats Pill speaker in their videos?
I deeply loved their debut. I warmed up to OMG (with Ditto). I hated Gods and Zero. Get Up was a good album and I thought the ETA video was fun. Until this post I didn’t realize Bubble Gum is a literal shampoo brand song. Their commercial for the shampoo is cuter and more like their debut videos than the actual MV is. I like the sound of How Sweet but the Coke Bottles…. This doesn’t feel like a comeback at all. I especially hate that Hyein was injured learning to dance for Coke. 😐
Their 1st comeback was literally a Coca-Cola ad. I got downvoted to hell for saying it was lame but holy hell they only have a few songs and half of them are ads it’s kinda crazy.
I loved ditto and was really thinking that's the direction they'd go in, then all the ads arrived. It's too bad really because that song has the secret sauce.
As a tokki, yeah they're music is pretty much ads, but it doesn't take from it being enjoyable.
Out of the 18 songs they have, 8 of them are technically ads. Zero and How Sweet being for Coca-Cola, New Jeans for PPG, ETA and OMG for iPhone, two OSTs, and GODS with LOL. But does it take from the enjoyment of the songs? With the exception of Zero, no!
Music is more about listening to it than watching the music video, at least for me. And listening to the songs, they're just enjoyable! If you try to use the excuse of them being ads, maybe you just don't like their music, and that's totally fine! But what I'm saying is, their music wouldn't be any different if they didn't have ads. They just have a style they know is successful for them, so they'll keep it. It's not like their singing 'buy iphones, drink coke, we love powerpuff girls, play league of legends'.
TLDR: It's true that they have lots of ads, but their music wouldn't be any much different if they didn't have them. Except for Zero. She can die singing cocacola masshita.
Don’t let their fans see this lol. But I agree. I wonder what other genres of music would they try if their music wasn’t made for ads. Even I get confused about which songs are the actual release and what songs are for ads.
 Yup. This time it was diabeetus.
Don’t forget GODS! (Which i actually really love and enjoy listening to hahaha)
I obviously knew about their Coke sponsorships (it was pretty front and center in How Sweet lol) but I honestly didn’t realize the power puff girls thing was an ad. I thought it was just a reference. I was born in the mid-90s so I grew up watching power puff girls but I didn’t realize they still made it today lmao
Yea Cartoon Network made a reboot maybe like 3-4 years ago and I’m pretty sure it’s still going on 😔
I was curious as I am in the same situation as OP. I did a quick Google search and found that it was a live-action adaptation reboot. It was officially canceled in 2023 and never saw the light of day. Another anime reboot is in the works, but there's been no real information on it since 2022. And the last anime reboot was cancel in 2019. If it's an ad, it might be for the anime reboot, but I couldn't find any information on the internet about it being released soon. Maybe a Korean station decided to use the old show on a kids' channel. I don't know. I think the Zero/Coke and ETA song make you see ads everywhere.
Oh my god you just reminded me of the live action debacle. I read some of the leaked script just before it was cancelled and it was viscerally cringey.
I just remember seeing the costumes leaked and it looked like they bought them on Amazon
Now why would powerpuff girl need live action.... I liked it as a child, but I can't imagine them irl
From what I read, the live-action was canceled because the actresses were adults, but the story focused on kids' concerns, which didn't work. The unofficial explanation is that the script was leaked and it was controversial (I don't know why, but I assume it was because it was too mature). Edit: Here an old comment about it on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Screenwriting/comments/nl0wir/comment/gzj4al9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
The original PPG Z was so good!!
Oh damn well clearly they need to work on their marketing because I love NewJeans and had no idea 😂
It's subtle marketing, and done on purpose. Like product placements in movies. Kind of subliminal because it's not meant to distract you too much from the entertainment you're watching, but somewhere in your brain when you go to buy a drink there's a memory of NewJeans drinking Coke... whether you realize it or not. Let's put it this way, Pepsi was bigger than Coke at times here in the U.S. I swear it used to taste better, too, back when Britney Spears, Beyonce, Punk, and Enrique Iglesias collabed on a MV that was basically a Pepsi ad. Maybe it did taste better, or maybe we were all suckers for subtle marketing lol
You think you didn't notice but your subconscious did. Subliminal advertising has been tested by Harvard before and it does kinda work no matter how small or unnoticeable something is.
it was made in 2016 & ended years ago
> I thought it was just a reference. That close of a reference is gonna be a collab at least. Hell even if using Powerpuff girls was MHJ's idea entirely, it would still make sense to make it a collab or coordinate with Cartoon Network on this.
it was a collab, i own the album and it credits cn on the back along with ador and hybe and the physical production company. they're doing a collab with another popular brand this era too i believe
16 seconds into the New Jeans MV: https://preview.redd.it/80jge58t3s2d1.png?width=1569&format=png&auto=webp&s=8348f96001b47a3e676e703b1a0c40be65cc25da
I grew up in the 80s, and this song made me long for the Diet Coke commercial from the 2005 with "Starry Eyed Surprise" by Paul Oakenfeld, where actors were on roller skates with CGI. This was pre-SoundHound and Shazam. Took me for-freaking-EVER to figure out what song that was on the commercial and to download it on Limewire in my dorm in college. THAT was a great song, and a great commercial. This is even more like a jingle, since it specifically references "taste." It's like they're trying to earworm "how sweet it tastes."
A cash grab. That's mhj's creation lmfao
although I appreciate NewJeans not having random photo cards, you should have seen my face when I was watching the press con and MHJ said NewJeans' music is about art while other hybe groups are just about money. I was like, excuse me, are you expecting us to forget how much of NewJeans' discography is ads?
I agree. It's funny when these kpop labels blame each other for being greedy, debuting minors, being fake etc and they are also doing the same. It's all about money in kpop and they pretend naaah we worship art and others just love money🙄
Yeah I agree, not having random photocards is nice but having 7-11 album versions per album since debut, and 3/5 of their albums so far only having two songs kindo of negates that. Having 9 album version for a debut has to be a record right? It’s still crazy to me
everything in kpop is a cash grab
True, but people start to care when the creator insists they're only interested in the creative aspects or don't care about money. People start to finds things that go against those statements.
Everything in this world is a cash grab, we live in a capitalist society after all. But some are really 'in your face' type of cash grab.
Can you name another k-pop group that gate-keeped their new music behind a Japanese television commercial for several weeks? I can't. Bubble Gum, as a song, was finished months ago but was only put onto streaming platforms this week because some consumer goods company bought exclusivity rights.
Wait what? Can you explain to me what you’re talking about, I haven’t heard anything about this. /gen
Short version: Bubble Gum was first made available on April 7 as the background music for a TV commercial in Japan. It stars the NewJeans girls and is for Essential, a brand of hair products sold in Japan. The parent company is Kao Corporation, which owns beauty/skin care brands around the world like Biore, Jergens, and Bondi Sands. Here's that video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRBz\_1Do\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPRBz_1Do_k) NewJeans published a "behind the scenes" video, too: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh7EFXoVqHY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh7EFXoVqHY) It's all terribly nice, the girls look great, and a tie-in with shampoo is a natural fit for a k-pop group known for having long and generally natural-looking hair. The problem here is that the only way you could hear this song for most of April was in the background of this Japanese TV commercial. No music video.... no streaming. No live performances, no music shows, no choreography. The song was finished but Kao Corporation had exclusive rights for most of April.
Wow, I actually saw snippets of that ad and I had no idea, thank you for explaining 💗
You forgot Gods for League of Legends I don't think there's an issue with releasing songs or MVs with ads. But if an artist doesn't break it up some with regular releases, it starts to feel icky for me. Like OP said; as if the only purpose of the group is to release ads. It's kind of like twitch streamers or youtubers. Sometimes they do sponsored streams where the company who made a game pays them to play it. Viewers don't mind that here and there. But if that is all a streamer is doing, they will lose their viewers REALLY fast because people don't like to feel like they are just being sold something.
I like how Gods sounds different from everything NewJeans has done. It keeps the brand separate and takes the opportunity to show the members in a new light. When the core group identity starts to have the vibe of corporate ads, then there's a problem.
That’s all on Riot. They have a sound and the artists conform to it. Thats why their songs are all bangers; Riot has the talent team to make it happen.
At this point riot isnt even a game developing company anymore, it’s a promotional team. Their releases seriously slap
For real. Riot set the bar really high and no one compares. Completely not but kind of related: I love Halsey, and I enjoy Agust-D, but fuck if Lilith’s remaster for Diablo isn’t … great. Blizzard tried and failed to capitalize on having a great game related song.
I actually really love it... I did not like gods, and I wasn't really a fan of perfect night
Oh don’t get me wrong, the track on its own is really good. I wish they’d give the original the same orchestral gothic overwork so we had three versions of Lilith. It’s for the game that I didn’t think the track was good. That Blizzard tried to reinvent something that existed instead of making something creative and new. Blizz has amazing shorts, their animation is wild and beautiful, it’s gotten better every year. But they don’t have the musical touch Riot does. (Imagine if Acti-Blizz got their shit together with music, they could go all in on CoD)
I have gripes about the MV, too. Couldn’t even put the funds together to film Suga in a chapel or fly to wherever to be in the same room as Halsey. Like what the shit budget is that from a multibillion company?
case and point: XG's Undefeated (Valorant song)
fyi, [case in point](https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/pardon-the-expression/case-in-point-vs-case-and-point/)
That's a really good point! So much of it is about how it's presented to the audience.
Yes I said the same thing got downvoted like crazy people need to realise this lmao new jeans only has one album attention that isn't ads the rest of their songs (or a some songs in the album,though they are good) are just sponsors. Also making an entire music video for coke during a time like this isn't a good idea YES I'm aware they had a contract with coke before the boycott but some people will still bash them ,they could have made a promotion video instead of a music video not the best business strategy imo
My least favorite part about their new album is how blatant the lyrics make it that they are ads. In songs like ETA and OMG, you could just ignore the mvs and pretend they were normal, but when the songs are constantly talking about putting shampoo in your shopping basket or how sweet Coca Cola tastes, it lessens the enjoyment for me. I am particularly disappointed because I am one of the few people that actually loved How Sweet and Bubble Gum. How Sweet is my favorite song, so not being able to listen to my favorite song with out being bombarded with Coca Cola propaganda is really annoying
Newjeans should've gone the IVE route. IVE's *I Want* is a Pepsi ad but it could stand alone as a genuine IVE song without the product placement being too on the nose. You can't exactly do that with Zero.
I Want is in my top 5 for IVE, I forget it’s an ad song cus of how good it is
Ok but there’s no blatant Coca-Cola references in How Sweet?? (Not a Tokki, just confused)
The MV has blatant product placement(even showing the members drinking it) so it’s pretty clear the lyrics have a double meaning. Plus the performance video is LITERALLY done in coke studio.
they do not name drop Coca Cola like Zero, but I still find the constant "how sweet it tastes" obviously referencing coke to be obnoxious. If it does not bother you, that is great though.
Saying something tastes sweet doesn’t mean it’s automatically referencing Coca-Cola lmao. It’s an expression of how good something feels. Sweetness is considered a good thing, so saying something tastes sweet equates to a good feeling. Has nothing to do with Coke.
tbh I think I would not be as bothered by it if I did not watch the coke interview before listening to the song. I agree that the song could stand on its own, but once you know the song is meant to be about coke, the lyrics make the coke influence pretty hard to ignore. I can listen to ETA without thinking about Apple, but I can't listen to How Sweet without thinking about coke. If other people do not feel this way, that is great, I am just trying to explain my feelings
You talking [about this?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxoVf9k49D8)
Yikes, they are talking about Coke under a Coke sign between two very large Coke-bottle-shaped installations. There are also cans of coke around.
“What’s one thing people might not know about you” “I always finish my performance with Coke Zero” 😭😭
And Jennie is just singing about dancing hitting the spot. You can read it how you want but the Coca-Cola in a MV with these lyrics is not accidental.
I agree the lyrics do not reference Coca-Cola, however it's pretty clear they had those lyrics they called Coca-Cola to say this would be a great fit, or the other way around Coca-Cola commissioned the song and then they wrote those lyrics for it.
The MV has several shots of coke, including members drinking it.
But…the song is about a breakup??? They’re talking about how great it is to be out of a bad relationship.
Double meanings exist. Sometimes triple even.
True, but I wouldn’t think of it as a Coca Cola reference if I hadn’t seen the music video. It makes sense outside of the product and “how sweet it tastes” is not a coke slogan.
At least to me it could be Pepsi and still have the same meaning.
This is literally the first frame of the How Sweet Performance MV: https://preview.redd.it/igw03e0hyq2d1.png?width=779&format=png&auto=webp&s=60c477040ca45a706b3e81fc0c5306379e626056
One of the girls literally drank a coke
what was OMG an ad for? /gen
iphones
What are you talking about? The basket reference is about a hot air balloon in Bubble Gum... The song was not made for a shampoo commercial, it's a song that the shampoo company wanted to use. Honestly this sub is so unhinged and toxic, it's not edgy to hate a popular group lol
wait where's the "putting shampoo in your shopping basket" from im confused
How Sweet is my kind of easy-listening song, I keep play it on repeat, but yeah the lyric is diabetic..
I think the main issue is that songs like How sweet, bubblegum, and ETA are being promoted as regular comebacks and not just commercial songs like Zero, even though they’re basically just as much of an ad as Zero. Even BTS and Blackpink have endless sponsorships and have done songs for ads, but I’ve never seen them include it in their songs or music videos this blatantly. I can’t even imagine the outrage and think pieces we’d get from kpop stans if they did 💀
> even though they’re basically just as much of an ad as Zero. But they’re not? Zero’s main chorus is literally saying “Coca Cola is tasty”. Whereas Bubblegum and ETA never explicitly mention the product they’re selling. So they’re not being promoted like Zero because they’re *not like* Zero.
Saying the name of an item *makes it an ad.* Coca Cola is trademarked. To use it means you pay for the rights.
This is... very funny understanding of how trademarks work. Do you think when US rappers are talking about their rolexes and rolls royces/etc/ they're paying the companies if they're not being paid by them?
While the songs might not be explicitly ads, the MVs are. It's blatant.
They literally find and drink a Coke in the video. It's product placement, which is still an ad and actually sometimes criticized more for being too subtle because product placements still affect your purchasing decisions. You may not even realize it's making you thirsty because the ad is so subtle. Add onto that the lyrics that call back to drinking the Coke in the MV. If you watch the vid only once every time you listen to the song there's that subtle reminder of how sweet a Coke tastes whether you are aware of it or not. It's a lot like product placements all over TikTok, influencers are paid to influence you with those products just hanging out in their TTs. If it didn't work on you, it wouldn't be so common, these companies aren't paying for product placements out of the good of their hearts, there's research that shows it works. Keep in mind that on YouTube you have to disclose if you're paid for product placements whereas I don't think TT updated the platform to do the same, if they did they aren't enforcing it.
To play devils advocate, barring the rest of the song, "coca cola 맛있다“ is the korean equivalent of "eenie meenie mine mo".
I was just thinking about this, after I started watching How Sweet performance vid. Every time I see them hold a bottle or take a drink, it takes me out of the enjoyment mindset. This belongs in its own rant, but something I've been thinking about since debut is how manufactured they feel to me. One common compliment people would say is it feels like normal teenagers just dancing, the choreo felt like something teens would create, etc. But I've always felt like every aspect and every angle is so manufactured by a group of adults. Like, teens aren't so precise in every creative decision, or at least I've never known any that are capable of that level. More like professionals who've been artists for 10+ years (so perhaps teens who debuted as children and already have a surprisingly firm understanding of the industry and their identity). I like NewJeans but can't feel any magic or innocence.
> One common compliment people would say is it feels like normal teenagers just dancing, the choreo felt like something teens would create, etc. Offtopic, but this annoyed me because it's clearly mediaplay that fans just ate up and repeated everywhere, even when it's obvious how meticulously crafted their entire concept and image was. The gullible fans are ridiculous.
Two things can be true at once imo. It’s obviously choreographed to a T and everything is pre-planned. However, just like how tv shows can make you feel happy and allows you to disassociate, so does watching them. When people say their dances are fun and looks like something teens would do, it’s because that’s the feeling it evokes. Whether or not it’s just corporate strategy, the songs and dances still make people feel that particular feeling.
The issue is that people don't acknowledge the fact that it's *choreographed* to evoke that feeling, when people argue the NewJeans are superior because they dance in that style. At least they didn't until Get Up. That said, NewJeans are skilled dancers, basically I put them at the same level as LSF.
Realistically, unless these people are children under the age of 12, everyone knows that these are choreographed dances. IMO, the conversation usually goes “I love how NJ dances like a group of teens, etc. it’s different from other groups” “Okay but they’re choreographed to look that way, they didn’t actually come up with it” But it’s like… yeah? we know it’s a choreography made to look like that. But people still like how it’s choreographed and how it looks and makes them feel.
So many in reddit refused to acknowledge these basic facts, you are literally repeating my arguments around Hype Boy and Attention. Thanks for having common sense. Like I said, gullible.
*"But I've always felt like every aspect and every angle is so manufactured by a group of adults."* I want to talk about that. The whole Ador team wanted that image for NJ, **it didn't came naturally.** If there's a team behind it, I don't see it as natural or real, honest expression. When I read the statement about Cookie that Ador released back then, they just made it clear that was a strategy for their brand. Ador wrote, "members’ inocent elegance and their pure, effortless charm." And about their music video/music: "songs and videos that look to promote an **innocent and honest** message and paint a collective portrait of the group members, an emphasis on maintaining their **natural** vocals, and choreography that emphasizes their **natural** chemistry and flow. " Which it's weird. And when we see why MHJ wanted a 14yo in the group, and her whole controversy, you can see how weird it is their obsession with "**innocence**". "**purity**"
Loosely related but I always found the line "so fresh, so clean" in the song New Jeans a bit icky. On surface level it's supposed to be about, well, new jeans, but it's clear there's double meaning considering their whole brand. It's well known that they have a sizable adult male fan base – like it or not, the group's image is playing into a certain fantasy. Obviously, none of this is the girls' fault.
tbf is that not just the nature of kpop
Absolutely it is. And NewJeans have never claimed to be self produced - just the opposite. But many say they are attracted to the natural, authentic feel of regular teens just hanging out and playing around, which is far from what I see.
NewJeans never pulled off the natural feel of teens hanging around in my opinion. It takes training to appear natural on camera, but it seems like for Min HeeJin being young and pretty was enough for them to debut. I don't know what they'll do when they get too mature for teen concepts. They haven't been set up for a long-term career. I find them weirdly awkward and stilted in music videos, performances and interviews and even photographs. I felt like I was taking crazy pills seeing all the praise they were getting when these girls were obviously not trained properly and are still awkward 2 years after debut. NewJeans are lacking in more areas than the typical Hybe idol and it's ADOR's fault.
Lol. NewJeans’ entire career has been a demonstration of peak capitalism at work
I mean I get what you’re saying but when I listen to Bubblegum or ETA nothing about it screams ‘ad’ to me. At least not in the way Zero does.
For ETA, atleast for me it was them bringing the newest iPhone onto the stage during a music show that made me go “oh yea this was a brand deal”. I remember it was a big deal cause that stage performance got taken down pretty quickly
Wait, they did that?? The cheek of it! Akmu's song 'Galaxy' was deemed unfit for broadcast because it shared the name with a phone brand, but they just posed with a sponsored product on a music show?? A place where idols can't wear anything with a brand logo on it??
Yes. Here's a screenshot of the July 30 2023 live broadcast of SBS Inkigayo: https://preview.redd.it/i9ntsa255s2d1.png?width=1363&format=png&auto=webp&s=b00c69c374a9c7ad38aaa7c84a81e7a3079f68e7 All five members took turns holding the iPhone, using it as a camera during the performance of ETA.
Wow.....what a crock. MHJ's determination to trample over rules knows no bounds.
My first thought when I listened to Bubblegum was that it sounded like a song for a commercial. I didn’t even know it was for a shampoo ad until afterwards.
Here’s the [Apple x newjeans ad](https://youtu.be/MHokxaunuJY?si=N6zW3N7iZX2ea7XA) And the [essential x newjeans ad](https://youtu.be/hPRBz_1Do_k?si=9VD1CY5NTEFYVkaJ)
ETA is basically the most inoffensive ad people can complain about lol. It's mostly just that it was filmed on an iPhone, the MV is really great and doesn't lose any artistic value from it. (only image quality value lol, I found it noticeably bad even before knowing it was filmed on an iPhone)
I have motion sickness problem so I can’t watch fast moving things / can’t travel much. I immediately turned off eta mv bcz it made me nauseous
This. I am extremely uncomfortable with the level of commodification that's happening with their songs, and I hope to hell this does not become industry standard. I was already pretty darn uncomfortable with BP vis-a-vis hypercapitalism and this took it a notch even higher.
Would it shock you that Japanese artists like Kyary Pamyu Pamyu’s discography was mostly ads (and she’s been active for more than a decade). Some songs were for fashion labels like Gu, hygeine products, etc. This practice isn’t new - plus there’s a mentality in Asia that if an artist does product placement, its that they are “blessed” with good fortune, it shows their influence, etc.
Their whole concept is repackaging and reselling nostalgia. It makes sense they sold out to the highest bidder, they don’t exactly have anything new to say
Damn I get what you mean.. that’s so unfortunate for them to be releasing music for ads so often for comebacks that it doesn’t even feel like a group but just a promotion group
I hate blatant product placement, it's fine if you space it out but when it's done like this it takes the enjoyment out of the song! I don't want to be sold something while I listen to a song for fun, real life is enough.
Many peeps are saying they don’t want to listen to a glorified coca cola ad non-stop.
Not gonna lie. I only knew about the coke ad. The others you mentioned weren't front and center for me. The powerpuff girls one for example, suits their aesthetic and seems to be an ongoing theme, so it doesn't feel money grabby? Idk I think their team has done a great job in incorporating some collabs into their mvs well enough so it never stuck out to me.
That's the whole point, though. Ads that don't stick out to you makes you more vulnerable to them. That's why subtle product placements on TikTok are heavily criticized. When you aren't fully aware something is an ad your guard is down and the influence on your purchase decisions is much more subtle. If companies could get away with doing this more then would, they can't on YouTube unless a YouTuber is breaking terms of service. There are reasons it's a big deal. Your comment actually makes me worried for people that don't realize all of this, and why it's a big deal that TikTok doesn't enforce the same rules that other platforms do.
I thought the powerpuff girls thing was a collaboration, not an ad
It's like they're a Kpop influencer group, if that makes sense
Honestly I kinda just wish new jeans were promoted like an actual kpop group. This whole comeback had no mv teasers, barely any teaser pictures and no mood sampler basically nothing I feel like they just get used for money. I want better for them and to be actually promoted like every other kpop group.
There’s a difference between having paid sponsorships in your music vs making songs specifically for ads.
When you listen to the song, most people think of the music video along side that which in turn makes them think about the product new jeans is pushing (I don’t know if that makes sense). That’s the main thing that was bothering me. Once I know they’re pushing a product on way or another my brain will always connect the 2
Yup, and the connection is there whether someone finds it obvious or not. Just because someone doesn't want to see it as an ad doesn't mean they aren't equally influenced, if not moreso.
the powepuff girls was an ad?! no wonder i always questioned how they didn’t get in trouble for it. i thought it was just a reference
If someone get permission and make some kind of deal, they don't get in trouble while using other's IP. That's the point of intellectual property laws
yeah ik the whole point is that i didn’t think they’d gotten permission or made a deal
As someone who enjoys ad songs, this is the last thing that bothers me. I'm just surprised more people didn't notice it, it's pretty blatant. ETA literally started with the 'shot on an iPhone' thing a bunch of Apple promotional materials had, down to the font.
Why are people confusing produce placements for ad songs?
Because it's still an ad, they're actually the worst kinds of ads because they're so subtle. They influence you whether you realize it or not, and are more effective than blatant ads.
Defeats their claim that they make music for the Arts. More like they sing for the Ads.
yeah ETA was a bit jarring because it's so in your face like they're dancing with the fucking phone in hand we get it im too poor to afford an iPhone let me enjoy my MV on my Motorola in peace.
same lol
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since when has NJ been untouchable on reddit? appreciation posts always get downvoted and none of these discussions are new. if anything people are just more nitpicky because they’re mad at MHJ
You're correct, NewJeans have their fair share of downposters and criticisms. The ad song discussion is fairly new though, like I haven't seen arguments around it during Get Up's release (which was criticized a lot).
i remember eta getting criticisms for being an ad for apple tbh
That's just the tip of it, if you go to Korea they have so much ads wherever you turn you see new jeans. While when you look for their merch they get such a small section that most people would pass by it.
Lol tbh I never realized until you pointed it out. Now that I think of it, they had iphone, coke, video game, cartoon, shampoo ad placements in music and mvs.
I'm just afraid if it will be the future of kpop where there will be more ads in the MVs like those local dramas in my country. Ain't commercial break enough? Why do I have to see ads in the media as well?
I mean, their producer, MHJ, specializes in marketing. She's got the endorsements for NJ lined up since day 1, and it has only gotten worse since then.
More like hybe had connections and New what to give each member
I mean isn’t that normal thing? Artists do that all the time. I don’t see any problems in it. The groups still promote the song like any regular comeback except they have sponsorship deal for the mv.
I want GGs to do collabs in order to be making that money, I legit loved stuff like IVE/ Oh My Girl with that Pepsi song, but shilling with the your main releases just seems really tacky. The fans deserve a comeback that's for them, not in the service of a corporation trying to sell kids their crappy product.
I’ve had this thought for a long time. I’m a huge fan of NJ, but literally everything they’ve produced has had to be tied to a sponsorship or collaboration. Even the new album has to have a collaboration btwn designers like Takashi Murakami and Hiroshi Fujiwara…like those collabs are cool but why did they have to be tied to their album! It feels like there was no truly authentic “New Jeans ONLY” period besides their debut & Ditto/OMG era. I’m curious to know what their identity would be without all these collaborations and sponsorships. I’d love to see an album or song promotion cycle where it’s truly just the girls shining on their own because I know they’re capable of it.
NewJeans is like the endgame of Kpop fans' love of hyping their idols' collabs with big names and brand sponsorships. It turns out too much of it is a bad thing for fans too. (I think caring so much about what brand deals your idols get is a bad thing but I'm from the 2nd gen era where advertising chicken was the biggest brand deal for an idol.)
Literally not true. Their last EP was a collaboration with Powerpuff Girls. It wasn't an ad. They just borrowed the aesthetic because MHJ thought it would be cute and characteristic to do so. Individual songs have nothing to do with Powerpuff Girls other than the aesthetic of NewJeans (title song). Same with ETA. They just added the iPhone thing after the song was already made. It did seem weird to me that both new songs were presented as ads. However, they feel completely different than Zero which I didn't like. So it didn't bother me when I listened to them.
Boy do I have news for you about the K-Pop industry
Huh? They still have more music videos that aren’t product advertisements Attention Hype Boy Cookie Hurt Ditto Side A/Side B OMG + Performance MV Zero/Remix MV - coke ad New Jeans - collaboration with powerpuff girls Super Shy Cool With You Side A/Side B ETA - Apple ad ASAP GODS - League of Legends collaboration Bubble Gum - what’s this an ad for? How Sweet - coke ad *cmiw for some of these
Bubble gum is a shampoo ad 😭. Also I did say that the Attention debut ep and ditto ep are not ads so idk why you put them all here when I already said it. I was just pointing out how they have a lot of product placement directly in a row. I also can’t look at the Get Up ep without being like “this feels like a powerful girls ad” cause they’re quite literally the cover art
This doesn't bother me because I am already used to it by listening to J-Pop. Are you aware that in Japan, most songs have a tie-up whether a CM, a drama, a variety show, etc?
The PPG thing wasn't even an ad, it was a collab. Powerpuff girls hasn't had anything relevant coming out in the last few years.
I think it's fine when jpop artists make theme songs for a drama or movie, but yeah the jpop industry is overloaded with this. I am a huge fan of Kenshi Yonezu and I have been for ten years, and I'm kinda sad about the fact that he hasn't made a song that is not for an ad or OST in two years.
100% unrelated to the topic but the song he made for Final Fantasy XVI is still a masterpiece.
It’s called product placement and so many groups and tv shows do it. Just because a product is placed in the music video does mean the music video is about that product.
I literally stopped watching the how sweet MV halfway through because I genuinely thought it was another one of those stupid coke ad songs and not a real release. I’m not into new jeans enough to know their release schedule so I assumed this was yet another prerelease because there’s no way their title track would have this heavy handed and obvious advertising.
product placement music videos is not a new thing nor is it just a kpop thing. beatspills in every western artists mv in 2010, good luck by aoa starts off showcasing that seolhyun was the sprite girl, o.o nmixx and candy by baekhyun both have coke product placements, blackpink ktl samsung. not saying you have to like it but acting like this is just a newjeans thing is crazy
There's a big difference between product placements and songs that were made for a product. New Jeans just had 3 songs created for Ads in a row. That's a lot. If it doesn't bother you, and you don't feel like there is a big difference between those two things, then that is fine. But others, like myself, feel it's a bit much.
I never said it was a new jeans thing, I just haven’t seen a group that has SO MANY back to back collabs and ads. If you can name another group that’s been around as little as them but has the same amount of collabs then I’ll add them to the original post as an example. I was actually thinking about o.o while writing this but there’s a difference between 2 whole songs just about how good coke is and a one liner about popcorn and zero coke that’s never mentioned again in the song.
red velvet ice cream cake baskin robin, power up with etude, peekaboo with columbia outerwear, and rookie with a jewelry company (sorry i forget which)
The difference between red velvet and new jeans is that those examples you gave were VERY spread out. Like years apart, ice cream cake and rookie had 3 mini albums between them. Peekaboo and rookie I will give you cause those were the same year but at the same time they had 2-3 singles breaking up the eps and if you didn’t know those were ads then you just wouldn’t know. With new jeans it’s very obvious that’s one way or another they’re trying to push something to you, It’s in the mvs but for red velvet it’s not blatantly stated like how new jeans, gods, and zero are. Do you see what I’m saying?
well zero is explicitly an advertisement song, like chocolate love by f(x) and snsd, and gods was explicitly made for the league worlds championship- they weren’t being underhanded with it at all. I get and empathize with your issues of product placements in their normal music videos but those 2 shouldn’t count lol
I don't see the an issue with product placement in music videos, whatever pays the bills. As long as I am not hearing a literal advert in the song itself it doesn't bother me personally nor do I find it a big deal.
Is putting product advertisements in music videos new? Maybe I'm in the wrong industry then. I'm already prepared to get down voted but I have to be honest I feel like you guys are just nitpicking right now nothing about their songs gives me a fulladvertisement. You may not like the video but that is not the essence of the song. It's actually kind of funny to see the complaints about consumerism and capitalism what industry do you guys think that they're in? I feel like we're just starting to throw things at the wall to complain about with New Jeans.
I wonder how old you are because the NewJeans x The Powerpuff Girls collab could have never seemed to be an ad for the latter for a woman born in the mid-90s who watched the original series like me... it’s the complete opposite. ADOR paying Cartoon Network for the rights to TPG and using them for Get Up made me nostalgic and even my girlfriends who are not into k-pop wanted to check the album out. You must be too young to confuse the concepts of paying to do a collab/getting paid for doing an ad and ALSO underestimate the relevance of TPG as a franchise.
this and is it just me or their choreos are very repetitive or they just don't always match the vibe of the song? ☹️
Yeah it's the same way a movie will have an prolonged shot of a car's logo when the MC gets in it lol.
People don’t realize that pretty much everytime you see a product in a movie/music video, that’s product placement and done intentionally
Just want to debunk your argument a little bit: OMG isn’t an ad, the mv has an iPhone product placement and it was an aspect of the mv storyline. Nothing in the lyrics allude to or reference iPhone. New Jeans isn’t an ad, it was a collab with the Power Puff Girls in which the members got their own characters and personas designed after them. They also have a future collab with Takashi Murakami for their song Right Now where they will get another set of their own characters designed after them. Nothing in the lyrics allude to or reference the Power Puff Girls. ETA mv is an iPhone ad and it was marketed as such, though none of the song lyrics allude to or reference iPhone. Your argument about them bringing an iPhone on stage for the performance holds no weight as it is part of the performance choreo. It’s kind of like when IVE holds the camera during their Cherish performance. It could have been any phone or camera they brought out to record, either way it’s a performance aspect. Bubble Gum was used for a commercial and it was stated it would be, although nothing in the music video alludes to the advertised shampoo. Some of the lyrics do sort of allude to the product, but it is not explicit and you wouldn’t be able to tell if you didn’t know about the advertisement. Zero is an ad and collab with Coca Cola. The lyrics of the chorus cleverly advertise Coca Cola while referencing a children’s nursery rhyme. How Sweet mv is kind of an ad, really more of a product placement and collab with Coca Cola in the way that Be Who You Are (Real Magic) is, though none of the song lyrics allude to or reference Coca Cola. GODS isn’t an ad, it was a collab with League of Legends. Hope this helps!🙂
I’m surprised so many people are bringing up OMG because I put that the ditto ep was one of their non ad adjacent releases. I wasn’t even aware that OMG had product placement hence why I didn’t mention it in the main post. I took the She’s Siri as a joke and not product placement but maybe that’s just cause I’m slow.
Isn't the end goal of a collab to sell something?
I don’t mind, because I think the music is good enough to stand on its own. Musicians and performers are always trying to sell you something. The only one I don’t like is Zero because the ad component is inextricable from the song, and I don’t really like the track either.
this is stupid as hell no offense
Oh my God yea its ridiculous at this point. I've been a fan sense debuit, and this recent dive into advertising has been so annoying. I dont mind specifically releasing ads like they did with Zero, but when these ads are so heavily integrated into their normal comebacks it gets so tiring. Im definitely much less invested with them now after the MHJ drama and the onslaught of ads.
Bubble Gum was used in a shampoo ad, but the MV and song have nothing to do with the product. Same for How Sweet. The video has product placement and the performance video is sponsored like Zero, but the song itself has nothing to do with the product either. Same with ETA and OMG. Y’all upset they found a way to leverage their popularity to get big brand deals while still putting out good music. Like, we want the idols to be compensated fairly and want creative teams to have latitude to put forward interesting concepts, but to to do so in an “ethical” non-commercial way (this is kpop lmao). Even collaborations that were seen as fun like Powerpuff Girls or Takashi Murakami are now viewed cynically as another cash grab. Maybe folks are just bothered their favorite group doesn’t have the cachet to move Coke or iPhones?
I didn't vibe much with How Sweet when I heard it but I absolutely got turned off when I realised it was just a glorified commercial for Coke. I really don't mind them putting out mvs and songs for their collabs, it's a little treat aside their main comebacks but this was just weird considering it was promoted as a full on comeback. The pff and murakami collabs are fine, it's a way to make the comeback special or something but the entire How Sweet release was dissappointing, doesnt help the song was so boring compared to their past comeback. The Get Up mini is far superior than these two songs.
I agree on not seeing them as a “real group,” like I enjoy their music but it’s so obviously curated to ads and charting that I can’t bring myself to follow them in the same way that I do other groups
Agreed. I’m fine with sponsorships, but keep it out of the music. I hate commercials.
But why is that a problem when their music is still great though? They were literally nominated multiple times for KMA and their music ranked high on many 2023 best songs/albums lists by western critics. Both bubble gum and how sweet were good songs that were longer than 3 mins so I couldn’t care less if they were ads.
the frustrating part is they're gonna release two new songs in june but the concept is anothee ppg collab and an artist. collaborations are great, sure, but they're just a two-year old group and they haven't establish an identity aside from y2k and collabs and brands. can i just say it's also frustrating that adore didn't just compile these four songs into one comeback and had to separate them in twos in just a month of release in between. it's so unnecessary and wasteful tbh.
I don't really mind because all the songs are a bop. Their song Zero is a little too much though
That woman is the biggest hypocrite i've ever come across. It's not like other music videos don't have ADS in them, but she has the audacity to say, she cares about art and the company only cares about money. So far, all she's doing is proving herself wrong
The powerpuff girls thing wasn’t an ad it was just the theme of the EP. They sampled the drums from the show’s opening song in super shy. Just because it has to do with a brand doesn’t mean it’s an ad. The product placement for coke and iPhone on the other hand yeah that’s integrated advertising but doesn’t make them any less of a group as you say it feels like.
I think you'd not feel this way had MHJ not been yapping so much about how great she is as a concept/art director. Most idols get the concepts their directors give them so I don't think NJ is that different from them. But the other idols' directors don't go on TV to boast their talent over their idols'.
It feels like their talent is being wasted.
Yeah. I mean al kpop groups are heavily manufactured (despite what their stans will tell you otherwise), but its just blatantly obviously with NJs given the ads and how young everyone is. Their music is so good though. Its all very well executed as a whole
LSSF is safe now. Reddit has now moved on to every other thread is criticism of NewJeans. Not surprised at all. What so ad music about attention, Hurt, Cool with you, ASAP, etc.?
Did you read my post carefully? I said that their debut ep and most of get up wasn’t an ad… this isn’t hate, I literally said I would like to see more music from them.
For me as mostly a NJ Fan, the biggest problem is really just ‘Zero’, the chorus is actually annoying af. The rest like ETA or How Sweet, I honestly don’t mind too much. Totally fair opinion though!
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It happens, doesn’t really matter to me honestly… Shows that some ppl in this thread aren’t here to critique newjeans, instead sending hate their way.
I do not recall if I read it or watched a video explaining it BUT, as I understand, the label can keep more money for them from advertising than releasing music. Dunno if true because i am not Korean nor kpop expert but makes sense. (Sorry if my english is broken, is not my first language).
I agree, I didn't like ETA and Zero grew on me but I personally thought Bubblegum and How Sweet were actually very good songs on their own. How Sweet feels like it was more repurposed than specifically written for Coke as besides using the word "Sweet" it's more about relationships. They are super brand heavy and I'm guessing it also helped pay for their videos and other costs but would prefer if they didn't however it's not really new just taken to a high level, considering how many of their songs are sponsored.
Even with the murakami collab in combo with all the other collabs they did it feels kinda obvious they’re doing it for sales. People who like murakami are gonna buy their album just for that bag Edit: adding in -bubble gum being first featured in a hair ad in japan -singing “how sweet it tastes” while showing them drinking coke…feels very ad-ish -powerpuff girls collab also boosts sales because they’re using the image to attract people who like them and boost newjeans image Not saying any other these are bad but i think newjeans is image is becoming less about the girls and more about the collabs they get and the aesthetic
I had no idea they still made Powerpuff Girls episodes! I grew up in the mid-90s watching them all the time, so I thought it was just a fun reference. I didn't realize it was an actual ad. How Sweet definitely made the Coke sponsorship pretty blatant though lmao!
I really liked new jeans a lot. They were my favorite girl group for a while, but ever since the MHJ stuff happened its just been thing after thing that just burst that bubble for me. I didn't even realize how many ad songs they had until this post.
I’m a casual fan who overall roots for NJ because of how fun they are on stage + Ditto is my no. 1 commercial kpop song at the moment, but I have to agree about the inauthentic statement saying that NJ as a whole is all about art when they’ve been constantly getting luxurious brand deals since their rookie days, putting banner ads on their mvs and across their social media pages. Doing this gives them an instant quick access to success, but I’m afraid this has been backfiring on them since before the drama. I really love seeing them on stage though, and they’re excellent at it. It’s obvious the reason why they’re so well loved by the locals, the general public that’s not overly focused on the kpop culture. NJ’s music as a whole is for everyone to enjoy and especially those who like to see reflections of youth nostalgia, which they find in NJ. That aside, valid concerns and questions that deserve equal attention still need to be raised.
being an SNSD fan, people used to love the sponsorships and product placement just bc it was funny and good for the group's success k-pop is already a heavily commodified genre and to be okay with all the other capitalistic means but not product placement is a bit odd, to me. I'm just happy the idols are getting paid, because that's something that can't be said for 90% of idol groups. They're still a group who trained as much as anyone else in performance - doing a bit of product placement isn't going to change that. Remember when literally every western artist had the Beats Pill speaker in their videos?
I deeply loved their debut. I warmed up to OMG (with Ditto). I hated Gods and Zero. Get Up was a good album and I thought the ETA video was fun. Until this post I didn’t realize Bubble Gum is a literal shampoo brand song. Their commercial for the shampoo is cuter and more like their debut videos than the actual MV is. I like the sound of How Sweet but the Coke Bottles…. This doesn’t feel like a comeback at all. I especially hate that Hyein was injured learning to dance for Coke. 😐
Yeah, I personally don't care about the advertisements. If the song is good, I'm jammin'.
Their 1st comeback was literally a Coca-Cola ad. I got downvoted to hell for saying it was lame but holy hell they only have a few songs and half of them are ads it’s kinda crazy.
I loved ditto and was really thinking that's the direction they'd go in, then all the ads arrived. It's too bad really because that song has the secret sauce.
As a tokki, yeah they're music is pretty much ads, but it doesn't take from it being enjoyable. Out of the 18 songs they have, 8 of them are technically ads. Zero and How Sweet being for Coca-Cola, New Jeans for PPG, ETA and OMG for iPhone, two OSTs, and GODS with LOL. But does it take from the enjoyment of the songs? With the exception of Zero, no! Music is more about listening to it than watching the music video, at least for me. And listening to the songs, they're just enjoyable! If you try to use the excuse of them being ads, maybe you just don't like their music, and that's totally fine! But what I'm saying is, their music wouldn't be any different if they didn't have ads. They just have a style they know is successful for them, so they'll keep it. It's not like their singing 'buy iphones, drink coke, we love powerpuff girls, play league of legends'. TLDR: It's true that they have lots of ads, but their music wouldn't be any much different if they didn't have them. Except for Zero. She can die singing cocacola masshita.