The subway station is perhaps one of the most unpleasant places to be in any part of the world. But letting out a big sigh, everyone must commute to work one way or another.
One thing that may brighten up the atmosphere of the subway station are K-Pop idol advertisements.
If you've ever visited South Korea or live in the country, it's very likely that you've seen several at some point. And even if you've never visited the country or don't live in South Korea, you'd know all about these particular types of ads if you're a K-Pop fan.
The majority of these ads are put up for the purposes of celebrating the birthdays of idols or for the anniversary of their debut.
In the past, fans gathering money collectively and sending small gifts to idols was pretty much the only thing happening. However, the scale has become much more extravagant these days.
K-Pop fandom culture itself has upgraded itself over the years, and more money is being spent by fans on their favorite idols than ever.
Fans can enjoy seeing their idols being publicly glorified and promoted, and what better way is there to do this than to put up ads of them in the busiest and most crowded places in the city?
So just how active are fans in utilizing this promotion method?
Well, back in 2014, there were actually only a mere total of 76 ads of K-Pop idols that have been put up. Now, in recent times, the figures have dramatically changed. Just in a period of nine months last year in 2019 beginning from January to September, there has been a total of 1576 different K-Pop idol ads put up inside subway stations.
The time period where the explosion and surge of K-Pop idol ads inside subway stations was when 'Produce 101' season 2 was running, which was 2017.
Between the years 2016 and 2017, the number of ads shot up from 542 to 1038.
So how much are these ads exactly?
Well it actually varies depending on the location and the size of the ad. For popular locations such as Gangnam Station, Samseong Station, and Hongdae University Station, the pricing is approximately $4,500 for a period of one month.
So in some cases, where a fandom would have several ads in various different locations, you can pretty much expect the total sum to have a five figure sum.
How do fans mainly achieve this?
Where are K-Pop fans the most active in? Social media right? On Twitter, just by typing in subway ad donations in Korean, you can find tweets about collecting money to put up ads.
Really shows how much idols love and support the idols that they stan right? It's one of the many beautiful things about K-Pop.
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