Korean Companies Using "Game Babes" To Advertise Their Games

Unlike other foreign games, Korean games often cast famous female entertainers as their promotional models. The aim is that they are so beautiful that even non-gamers get tempted to play the games. But is it effective marketing?

[R6ex]

Chinese companies does this to the extreme!

[cleft5]

A company using a beautiful person to sell their products? Never heard of that before. Seriously don't see the need to focus on gaming companies that are doing this like it is something new or bad. Beautiful people have been used to sell products from the beginning of time. They do it because it works.

[SaturdayNightBeaver]

Damn... But so dumb, if your game is bad , no amount of "babes" are gonna convince me to waste my time with it , i will always check yt for gameplay clips first :D

[hkgamer]

well, you dont really know how bad the game is yet. but these kpop idols/models attract the same type of demographic. if gamers are a fan of that certain idol they may look at the title of the game and then look at youtube clips to see if they any good. therefore being a sucesful campaign.

i would like to say that these promotions are not rare and some games like aion a mmorpg that was pretty decent before it went f2p had big kpop celebrities do some kind of live show/performance of some kind. not really sure on the details since it was korean only.

[Vladplaya]

Works only on adolescent virgins, because once you get a girlfriend/wife or just grow up, you realize how pathetic such ads are.

After all if you get so turned on by those ads that you gonna go out and buy advertised game, I don't know what would happen to you when you discover porn, that is all over internet and is free haha

[cleft5]

You do understand that beautiful men sale products too people as well and using beautiful women to sell products also appeals to women as well, regardless of their sexual preference. People seriously need to stop acting like this sort of advertising is only for teenage boys.

[SuperBlur]

you are right tho , average girl see ads with beautiful girl , average girl thinks i can be that beautiful too ! and goes on purchasing said product

same thing for men

[Vladplaya]

I feel sorry for people, man and women, who buy video games because of beautiful looking models in the ads. Maybe that is okay in Korea, but damn, that is just a weird way to go about picking what game to get. Maybe clothing, make up or jewelry would make sense, but video games?

I have been playing games for over 20 years of my life, and I don't know anyone who gets games based on ads. It usually what type of game it is, and the whether it is on sale or not.

But then again, I am older person, and I am married, but even when I was a kid, it never was about the ads. Time must have changed so much, people became dumber without me even noticing. What a shocker!

I should ask my wife if she would get a game if there is pretty girl in the ad.

[Vladplaya]

The virgin power of disagreeing is strong in this one! Haha

[user5669510]

Sex sales. What your saying Dont apply to the real world if that was the case it would be no strip club and that place is full of married man and people in relationships. Seem like your trying to say what your wife want you to say. When these kids discover porn they will continue to watch til they die . I watch porn with my chick so I'm kinda lost where your coming from.

You could even look at music good looking musicians thats below average equals famous then you ugly or average musicians that's great and talented equals not known or a nobody in the public eye. Its the harsh truth especially in the US

[Vladplaya]

You seems to get lost as to what exactly sex sells, and to what extend. Using hot chicks to advertise strip clubs, is actually makes sense, and the reason as to why people go to strip clubs.

Using hot babes to sell video games, is little bit different. Sure it works, but I fking pity a grown up adult who will buy a video game because of a good looking woman in the ad for that video game. As I said, it might work on adolescent virgins, because once you grow up and have sex, you realize that such ads are pretty pathetic, because you would have options to either have sex, or go to strip club, or just watch porn, and other ways to satisfy your sexual desires without need to buy a video game.

When you are grown up, you buy games, and things because you want/need them, and pretty girls in ads and on the box art are just a bonus for you to look at.

If you find yourself buying a video game because of pretty girl in the ad, then like I said, you either still a child, or you gonna have a hard time in your life if you are get so easily swayed by such simple marketing tactics.

[hkgamer]

asian celebrities/idols are kind of looked at a different light compared to western celebrities. they are percieved more as angelic virgins and anything sexual in the personal life could threaten their career.

anyway, this is more of stick celebrity on ad and not get turned on, feel horny and buy game. so people see ad, oh famous celebrity, what are they doing, oh selling game, what game is it? google.

do people get horny by seeing beckham selling h&m pants(underwear) and storm out to buy it? insert other celebrities advertising products here.

its nothing to do with porn.

[rainslacker]

You seem to assume that as soon as one gets a girlfriend, or gets married, that a person's attraction to the opposite sex simply vanishes.

That's just not the case, and if it were, we wouldn't see so many products aimed at men, both single and married, that have more women in their commercials than men actually using the product.

The way it works is, if you're a male, you see a pretty girl. You look at the pretty girl. More often than not, you go and look at what that pretty girl is promoting, because lets face it, how often have we paid attention to a pretty girl despite not caring what they're saying. Same thing happens here. You are thusly exposed to the product that the company wants you exposed to.

So, while sex does sell, it's not always just about the sex part, and it certainly isn't about whether a person is getting some somewhere or not. It's about having people realize your product is out there, which will hopefully make you want to learn more about the product...all because you saw a pretty girl that caught your attention.

There are examples of real "sex sells" advertising out there, and this is probably one of them. But I encourage you to get off your high horse and stop acting like you've never been influenced by these types of ads since you apparently stopped being a virgin, because I'm sure you have. Maybe not the ones as blatant as this, but certainly more subtle versions of it.

[Vladplaya]

"You seem to assume that as soon as one gets a girlfriend, or gets married, that a person's attraction to the opposite sex simply vanishes."

No even close to my the point of my post. To make it clear for you, when person get girlfriend or get married, or simply gets older, things like the article describes have less influence on such person.

Nowhere I said that attraction to opposite sex is gone, and nowhere I even hinted at that. If anything my point was as you grow older and you experience difference things, you become wise "sex sells" does not effect your mind as it would be when you were adolescent.

I never have been influenced by such ads in video game industry. If you read my other replies to other people, I clearly talk about sexual ads in game industry, as such ads can make more sense and have better purpose in other industries, for example, clothing. I might buy my clothing depending on what the model wearing it looks like, if the model is looking good IN the clothes I am interested in.
In video game industry, not once I spent my money on a game because of an ad, period. Because I am grown adult who realize that ads are there to lie to ignorant people, to make them buy product not based on logical choices or reasoning but on impulse of their emotions and desires. I might look at the babe on the box art or in the ad, and I would think to myself "she is hot, I would totally do her", but I would not buy game because of it, my reasoning would be, 1) Do I like that type of a game 2) What does reviews say about this game 3) Is the game on sale. All of my friends that I know follow about the same reasoning pattern, and even though we might mention hot girl in the ad, we never base our decision on whether to buy or even play the game because of the females in the ad, because it is simply immature.

Do some research on the "sex sells" topics in the VIDEO GAME advertising, and see who that tactics is used for. People argue here till they are blue without understanding what been said, and without understanding that they are on gaming website reading article about ads for video games, therefore we are talking about ads that use image of women to sell video games, and not the whole concept of "sex sells" for everything else in the world, even though my point still applies its simply not relevant to this articles or my original comment.

[Loadedklip]

I approve of the Korean way of marketing!

[Activemessiah]

This ain't new... almost every media uses babes to advertise their products.

[user5669510]

Sex sells everything better. Besides boogers why do you think Kleenex makes a lot of money. Its almost summer and for some reason boxes of tissue is still flying off the shelves

[mydyingparadiselost]

Advertising is such a pathetic business.

[rainslacker]

Advertising caters to the selfish subconscious desires of it's target audience. Don't blame the advertisers, blame the people who are influenced by it to make it effective.

[stripe814]

if they put my disc between those chest im in lmao..

[stavrami-mk2]

Dont know what's being sold by I'll buy whatever she's on the cover of:-/

[Mexxan]

political correctness? Give it a frikin' break! I love how you get all this shite over here, people whining but if you step out to even to do a sunday grocery shop you'll see some girl with their tits and arses out practically because 'media' says thats the look. Double standards all round.

Guess what? Korea doesn't give a fuck. Yeah! get over it.

[alt]

I'm loving it!