Actor Yoo Ah-in’s allegations of drug use are making headlines every day. At first, he was accused of habitual use of propofol, a sleep anesthetic, a psychotropic drug, but the urine test result even came out positive for marijuana. It will take some time until the hair appraisal results, but first of all, the image damage seems inevitable.
Someone would have passed the news regarding Yoo Ah-in as mere gossip, and some fans would have turned around saying they were disappointed with him. Some may think that we should wait and see the results of the upcoming police investigation.
One thing is for sure, the marketing managers of each company that hired Yoo Ah-in as a model must have had their heads covered. In order to maximize the effect, they hired a big star, but they faced the celebrity risk head-on, and the drug issue that is difficult to tolerate in terms of public sentiment.
Yoo Ah-in’s ‘drug controversy’… Companies that erase traces
First of all, companies are in a hurry to ‘erase infants’.
The most talked regarding is Musinsa. Since 2021, Musinsa has actively promoted promotional activities by using Yoo Ah-in as a model. In particular, it created a virtual human ‘Muain’ (Musinsa + Ahin Yoo) and attracted attention with original marketing.
Extensive advertisements were sent out on TV and social media, and a full-fledged advertisement was placed at the entrance of the offline flagship ‘Musinsa Standard Gangnam’, which opened in Seocho-dong, Seoul in the second half of last year.
However, now, Muain marketing has been discontinued and all images related to YooAin have been deleted from the website, SNS, and offline stores. It is a position to watch the future police investigation, but it seems unlikely that he will be used as a model once more in a situation where his image has already been damaged.
Outdoor brand Nepa also stopped marketing Yoo-in. Nepa selected Yoo Ah-in as their model in September of last year. It must have been the mindset to seize the victory with star marketing for sure in the winter season when the down jacket competition is hot.
In the winter season, the effect would have been somewhat effective, but now it has been hit with a backlash. Nepa has taken down all of the pictorials and videos related to Yoo Ah-in, and is also in a position to comprehensively review various issues such as penalty while waiting for the official investigation results.
Chong Kun Dang Health selected Yoo Ah-in as the main face of the vitamin product I’m Vita in October last year and carried out promotional activities, but currently all related photos have been taken down from the website, YouTube, and Kakao Talk gift channels.
Star marketing using popular celebrities is always a double-edged sword. It is because a brand imprinting effect can be clearly achieved with just one short video, but when a star gets caught up in an unsavory incident or accident, the company must fully bear the damage. It is impossible for a company to perfectly prepare for the privacy risk of an individual that even the agency does not know regarding.
Even before Yoo Ah-in, many companies went through similar difficulties. In 2021, right following the controversy over actor Kim Seon-ho’s private life heated up the entertainment industry, most of the brands he worked as an model for, such as Domino’s Pizza, 11th Street, Canon Korea, and Food Bucket, took down advertisement videos from their official websites and social media.
In the same year, actress Seo Ye-ji was also suspended from appearing in advertisements following suspicions of gaslighting once morest her ex-lover Kim Jung-hyun arose. Prior to her comeback with the drama ‘Eve,’ she was sued by an advertiser for damages.
In addition, there are countless celebrities who have disgraced from advertisements and works due to school violence, scandals, drunk driving, gambling, and back advertisements.
These days, it is common for netizens to protest that companies directly advertise, and companies often decide to ‘quickly stop loss’ before the celebrities explain or announce their position.
Afterwards, companies can claim a penalty once morest the model, but the time, effort, and cost spent from planning to photo/video shooting are the responsibility of the company. In addition, the more strongly imprinted a brand is on the public through celebrity models, the more difficult it will be to avoid the damage to the image that accompanies it following the controversy.
Enthusiasm for virtual human model and character marketing instead of celebrities
Companies are looking for alternatives to the constantly recurring celebrity risks. A representative example is the virtual human model.
In recent years, as technology has developed, advanced virtual humans that are difficult to distinguish from real humans are emerging, not only in pictures but also in video.
Representative examples include Rosie from Sidus Studio X, the first virtual human influencer in Korea, Lucy from Lotte Home Shopping, Kim Rae-ah from LG Electronics, and virtual human pianist Hanul from startup Emotion Wave.
The virtual human model is not only completely free from privacy issues, but also has the advantage of being free from the constraints of time and space. Model activity period, number of times, scope of use, etc. are much more flexible than celebrities.
Also, in the past, the appearance of a virtual human being was criticized by the public as awkward and bizarre, but now, with the development of technology, the reluctance has greatly decreased.
Virtual humans are also optimized for realizing the image of the model desired by the company. Since it is not a real person, you can change the face, expression, body shape, etc. as you like, and as a producer, you can create it to suit the taste of the target audience.
Thanks to these advantages, virtual humans have become a trend in the global market as well as in Korea, and it is predicted that the cost of investing in virtual human models or influencers by global companies will increase gradually in the future.
Marketing using the company’s own content is also on the rise. Samyang Foods, which is famous for spicy chicken stir-fried noodles, is a good example.
Since its launch in 2012, Samyang Food’s Buldak Stir-fried Ramen series has been a huge hit with its unique spicy taste and has become a steady seller in the ramen industry. In this process, instead of using celebrity models, Samyang Foods built the brand’s worldview by creating sub characters such as ‘Neng’ and ‘Myochi’ with the main character ‘Ho Chi’ as the main character.
Binggrae also saw the marketing effect with the character ‘Binggraeus’. The Binggrae character, which was first introduced through the official Instagram account of Binggrae in 2020, was created with the concept of the successor to the kingdom of Binggrae.
Furthermore, Binggrae’s representative products, such as banana-flavored milk and Bibbic, were turned into characters and featured as major figures in the country of Binggrae, becoming a successful example of ‘not envious of celebrities with well-developed characters’.
An industry insider said, “Celebrity marketing using stars has the effect of increasing brand awareness in a short time, but there is a high risk that one person’s dishonest issue can directly hit the corporate image.” This is why we put so much effort into developing our own characters.”
Of course, nothing is as powerful as star marketing to increase brand awareness in a short amount of time. Even a virtual human elaborated to suit the taste of a company, or a fresh character that can snipe the tastes of the MZ generation, may not be as effective as a popular celebrity.
So, in the future, companies will continue to ‘serve celebrities’ by taking risks in the private lives of stars who do not know when they will explode, and spending up to billions of won.
This is especially true for startups or companies that are desperate for a positive image change. This is because the positive influence that celebrities with high public favorability have on brand image cannot be ignored, and if a fandom with solid purchasing power moves, the effect is certain.
An industry insider said, “Companies cannot accurately verify and predict celebrity risks that even the agency does not know, but because star power is so powerful, they are taking risks.” I am deeply troubled because I cannot avoid the damage to my image.”
