Critical Anlysis- James Leung

James Leung

ENG 11000-B FC

4/20/15

K-Pop: Samsung’s Perfect Marketing Tool

In order to successfully advertise a product, a company must connect or appeal to their target audience while also clearly showing the point of the advertisement.  This connection with consumers must be done on a logical, emotional, and/or ethical level.  In other words, the company must appeal to the rhetorical triangle of logos, pathos, and ethos.  A prime example company that advertises their product well is Samsung, advertising their water park Caribbean Bay.

Specifically, the ad being mentioned is Samsung’s commercial film featuring Korean pop groups Girls’ Generation and 2PM.  The advertisement begins with three members each from the two groups arrive at Caribbean Bay in order to begin training as lifeguards.  The six members enter locker rooms and as they begin changing into swimwear, the camera zooms in on their bodies.  Throughout the advertisement, small love stories are made between the male and female members while they train.  Also, in the background of the entire advertisement, a song sung by the two groups is played.  After suffering through their training, the six members are allowed to celebrate throughout the water park and the ad ends with Caribbean Bay’s logo swiped across the screen.  

Samsung is a company known most notably for the electronic products they produce such as smart phones and televisions.  Seeing them advertise a water park possibly may seem strange to some, but when realizing Samsung is one of the largest South Korean companies and the water park is solely in South Korea, the advertisement makes sense.  Samsung’s power in South Korea is gigantic so them trying to make money through other methods is reasonable.  The commercial is actually quite similar to Samsung’s commercials that try to sell their main products.  When Samsung releases a commercial trying to sell one of their phones, Samsung likes to add aspects that are very current and easy to understand.  This Caribbean Bay commerical definitely includes aspects that are very current and simple so it follows their advertisement pattern.  The purpose of the advertisement was obvious, to get people to go to their water park.  However, an American watching this advertisement and most likely would not see any appeal in the ad except for the fact there are good looking people with good bodies in it.  This is because Samsung is not trying to attract Americans to Caribbean Bay with this advertisement.  More specifically, Samsung’s purpose is to appeal to South Korean fans of either Girls’ Generation or 2PM.  The appeal to the fan base of the two groups is Samsung’s appeal to ethos from the rhetorical triangle.

Ethos is an appeal to a person’s moral beliefs and to employ ethos, usually a company has a person of high credibility to help advertise their product.  Samsung excellently employs ethos in their Caribbean Bay advertisement.  Some might question, what’s the big deal of having two Korean pop groups in a commercial together?  The reason why Girls’ Generation and 2PM being in the same ad together is important is not just because they are just Korean pop groups.  The true reason is because at the time the ad came out (2010), these two groups were among the most powerful celebrities in South Korea.  According to “FORBES KOREA Power Celebrity List”, Girls’ Generation ranked number one and 2PM ranked number five for South Korea’s most powerful celebrities.  Being the most powerful celebrities in South Korea, easily also makes these two groups among the most credible people in South Korea.  Having these two groups in the commercial not only grants immense credibility to the water park, but also is an enormous appeal to pathos.

To put pathos simply, pathos is an appeal to someone’s emotion and attempts to draw an emotional response to the viewer.  Samsung’s Caribbean Bay advertisement uses pathos in multiple ways.  One way pathos is used is the body images of the members throughout the advertisement.  Looking at the bodies of attractive people definitely generates an emotional response in most people watching the commercial.  Some people watching the advertisement might want to go to the water park just because they see good looking people advertising the park.  When this advertisement was shown in class, clear emotional responses were seen by numerous peers in the room.  Many classmates did not understand the words being said in the ad because the commercial was mostly in Korean, but solely body image created emotional reactions in the room. Furthermore, Girls’ Generation and 2PM being in the advertisement helps Samsung appeal not just to ethos, but pathos too.  Samsung’s attempt of connecting with the fan bases of these two groups applies here.  Their fan bases are large and very devoted.  The emotional response this advertisement generates for the two fan bases is huge just from seeing the groups in the video.  When hearing the two groups sing together in the commercial, the emotional response of fans is amplified.  Not only are fans getting a commercial featuring their favorite Korean pop idols, fans are basically watching an entire music video with the two groups.  Additionally, in some sense, Samsung makes an appeal to logos.

An appeal to logos is an appeal to a person’s logic or reason.  At first glance of the advertisement there might not be a lot of reason in the video, but there is some.  Towards the end of the commercial, the two Korean pop groups show themselves have fun throughout the water park and having a good time.  A viewer watching the commercial could think to themselves, “they look like they are having a good time so if I went there, I would have good time.”  A lot of the time either hard facts or statistics are used to appeal to logos, but they don't have to be necessarily to make an appeal.

While Samsung’s commercial fulfills many qualities of a successful advertisement, there are some flaws and drawbacks to it.  For example, some would say that the specific targeting of young people may repel older customers from wanting to go to the park.  If an older viewer were to watch the advertisement, they wouldn’t feel the large emotional connection to the groups being in the video or to the body image involved.  Especially parents looking for a place to bring their kids to could take this commercial the wrong way.  They might feel Carribean Bay is a place where only young people hang out and is not a family place.  Another risk this commercial runs is people watching the commercial who don’t know who the two Korean pop groups are.  Those people would likely not pay much attention to the commercial and not be attracted to the water park.  

Advertising is all about successfully reaching the target audience and Samsung beautifully reaches their target audience with this advertisement.  They want more young people to go to their water park and Samsung knows exactly how to persuade the youth of South Korea.  Creating a commercial film starring Girls’ Generation and 2PM, two of the most influential Korean celebrities at the time, appeals to a vast number of Korean youths on an ethical, logical, and emotional level.