Examples of Worst and Most Awkwardly Inserted PPL in K-dramas

Time for a laugh inducing post, chingus! Other than everyone and their grandmothers and even people who just came out of a coma all eating at Subways for breakfast/lunch/dinner/dream sequences, there are many other examples of egregious PPL (product placement) in K-dramas. A recent set of GIFs and stills helpfully collected it so you can see with your own eyes how laughable it makes characters and scenes when it’s so awkwardly inserted. Samsung having their own head up their arse for many years touting the waterproof spec of its Galaxy phones lent itself to human beings washing their phones, storing it in a basin of water, and putting it under a running faucet while in the bathroom. Weird new gadgets, functionality, and apps are used by characters ruining scene moments, including turning on the autopilot of a car so the male lead can fully lean sideways to make out with the female lead WHILE A CAR IS DRIVING DOWN THE HIGHWAY. Because, why not haha! Anyhoo, this post is also timely because insane mega hit drama Extraordinary Attorney Woo has been getting praise for its restrained and unobtrusive use of PPL.


Comments

Examples of Worst and Most Awkwardly Inserted PPL in K-dramas — 13 Comments

  1. Aren’t we glad Netflix had eliminated many of those horrible ads placement? I haven’t been complaining, but can’t blame them, someone gotta pay the bills.

  2. I know I’m get bashed here by trolls by daring to mention Han Jun, Su Cheol, Hye Jun, Prosecutor Cha and his team for stuffing Bebeco donuts into their mouths. The bright orange and blue packaging is a dead giveaway. OMG that has to be one of the most blatant PPLs I have ever seen in K-drama history. No subtlety or creativity whatsoever. Literally shoved into your face. Lol. It’s like the writer who messed up Ruler Master of the Mask suddenly got the memo from the main sponsor so she inserted it at the last minute to please them. SMH.

  3. The hoverboard one was parodied in Because this Life is my first: https://youtu.be/4pBbO_qs3Kk?t=149 where the female lead, played by Jung So Min, is a writer’s assistant had to squeeze in the PPL in a drama that Yoon Doo-Joon is starring in.

    I love the drama, Be Melodramatic, where the ribbing on PPLs and PPL inception were just so slick and funny.

  4. My first post has gone missing. So I’m posting it again for the 3rd time. Agree with @pretty autumn that the hoverboard scene in BTLIMF is a genius idea as Somin’s char worked as an assistant writer.

    My personal favourite remains SKL as it’s about online shopping so any PPL the writer inserted seemed plausible and it’s done with so much creativity and fun. Maxim Gold has never been so fragrant and it even contributed to solving a serial killer mystery.

    The worst is Bebeco donut in CM where practically all the main characters have shoved one into their mouths. So in your face, unimaginative and uncreative. Then there’s the TKEM ones. Lol.

  5. Cant remember which K series, they were all seated at a table and suddenly held up the bag of potato chips and basically saying how delicious, healthy etc etc the chips are. And remember everyone in K universe uses samsung phones. I gotta admire them how well they intergrated those product placements. Sometimes I didn’t even notice it until I realise why spend 5 minutes focusing on a character vacumming the floor and zooming in on the vacuum machine? Smart.

    • Pretty sure the chips were from Sell Your Haunted House. I think it was in one of the last few episodes of the series. Usually the PPLs inserted in the last quarter of a drama are extra clunky because they haven’t been able to fit it anywhere else in the drama and now they’re on a time crunch to knock out what’s left on the list. The drama was overall really good though.

      I feel like the vacuum ones are effective. Makes me want to get a dyson.

  6. I don’t watch a lot of dramas, the one that I remember the most/annoyed me the most was in Goblin. They spent quite a lot of times putting towels in a rack. I don’t even mind the White Musk PPL, but those towel scenes bothered me so much I hated them.

  7. TKEM was so not discreet about it that was very funny.

    Encounter’s “princess” wanting to eat a subway sandwich was really not credible at all.

    Be My Melo was funny about it.

  8. I like it when they make fun of it themselves. Anyway reminds me of King of Dramas in first episode when they are trying to get someone acting out dying on a beach to drink orange juice or something like that. Hilarious.

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