Assistant Manager Kim Hates Idols-Chapter 241: Advertisement Offer

Baek Haein took the remote and protested, ‘The soccer match is already over—what am I supposed to watch now?’. Baek Haewon ignored him completely and turned on her phone.
She had been saving her triple data coupon for this very day. Her heart feeling full, Baek Haewon accessed MeTube.
Spark’s holiday special video titled ‘Delivering Our Hearts to Those We’re Grateful For’ had just been uploaded.
As expected from Spark. They always uploaded content at the perfect moment when people were showing interest.
As always, but especially today, their self-produced content was absolute chaos.
Spark’s kind and sophisticated handsome man, Kim Iwol, was still only harsh towards his same-aged friend, Choi Jeho.
Kim Iwol, who had become the eldest of the six ‘brothers’ in this scenario, said in an utterly cold voice.
『Did you just say ‘hey’ to your older brother? Don’t you know how to observe seniority?』
For Kim Iwol to make such a strong statement! Baek Haewon was deeply moved.
Wasn’t Kim Iwol the epitome of proper language, an exemplary idol who spoke like a Korean language textbook?
This side of Kim Iwol, who never belittled those around him, didn’t treat his younger members condescendingly, and was always humble, was very refreshing and good.
If Kim Iwol were actually a boomer, she would have been anxious and shouted, ‘Kim Iwol, hide your temper!’ This was content she could enjoy purely because she knew Kim Iwol wasn’t like that.
Choi Jeho, who proposed a ‘twin’ concept and was hilariously shut down by Kim Iwol, was equally funny.
『…Hyung, should I take out the donggeurangttaeng?』
‘Is he crazy?’
Choi Jeho calling Kim Iwol ‘hyung’? Even though he was 187cm tall, just because he was born later than Kim Iwol? Was it really okay to serve up this kind of morally outrageous scenario?
Baek Haewon quickly left a comment on the video:
≫ Did Jeho just call Iwol hyung????? Did I???? just hear that correctly??????
When she refreshed the comment section, she saw other Sparklers starting to freak out over the same moment.
≫ Choi Jeho, since when were you such a polite man…? It’s really nice when the older hyungs call someone else hyung. Please continue this hyung-dongsaeng relationship a lot in the future
≫ The world’s most Confucian country is the best! Of course, age can’t be ignored. Our Emperor Jeho may be 187cm tall and can easily climb the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for an hour, and his grip strength may be 75kg, but he still has to call his hyung, who was born 9 months earlier, ‘hyung’
≫ A man the size of a bank vault calling a man the size of a refrigerator ‘hyung’ and doing as he’s told is very interesting and great. Please continue with this kind of content next time
Listening to anecdotes from their trainee days, he definitely didn’t seem to have an easy personality, but Choi Jeho within Spark was endlessly… endlessly… like that.
‘He was so fierce on the survival show, though.’
Even in the dance competition episode aired just recently, Choi Jeho had radiated a sinister aura. In episodes where he wasn’t paired with Park Joowoo, he basically gave off mafia boss energy.
And yet, when it came to self-produced content, he became the guy in charge of pulling out meat patties from the freezer. The world truly was bizarre.
From the third son, Seongbin, who became the village chief, to the fourth, Joowoo, a multi-time attempter at the dried persimmon festival, and the eldest, Kim Iwol, who ‘retired’ from his post as a village guardian statue, Lee Cheonghyeon’s role distribution was flawless.
The scene where Kim Iwol was making jeon while Choi Jeho peeled chestnuts and the other members did the dishes felt so much like an ordinary household scene.
Only after seeing the notice that Part 2 would be uploaded next week could Baek Haewon put down her now-warm phone.
“Noona, why do you keep laughing by yourself?”
Her younger cousin, who had just started elementary school, asked, pausing his game.
“Because life is good.”
Yeah, she was happy. Tomorrow, her boys would be appearing on a quiz show, too.
Spark’s schedule was as packed as ever, but Baek Haewon was having a great time. The holiday couldn’t have been more fulfilling.
* * *
As soon as Chuseok ended, Spark returned to their usual life pattern. We began to accelerate preparations for our last album of the year.
Deciding to release a mini-album to give it a year-end gift feel was great, but there was a mountain of things to prepare. For starters, Lee Cheonghyeon hadn’t left the studio UA had provided for him.
At least it was a comfort that now I only had to provide opinions or review things. If the system had told me to find a music video shooting location again this time, I would have cried my eyes out.
However, society was, as expected, not easy.
You couldn’t survive with naive thoughts like, ‘We did it once before, so we can do it quickly this time, right?’ New tasks always fall upon office workers.
“An advertisement?”
“That’s right!”
“And it’s for cosmetics…?”
“Yes!”
The manager’s eyes sparkled with excitement, as if to say, Aren’t you thrilled?
Spark, who used to shoot razor commercials back in the day, was now being offered a cosmetics ad. It really made you realize how far they’d come.
“How did a cosmetics advertisement offer come our way?”
Kang Kiyeon wondered.
Why else?
≫ Spark lip info revealed
Iwol: Nightscape Aurora 01
Jeho: Eveint Chocolate Nude Rose Matte
.
.
.
└ OMG, where did this info come from?
└ Iwol told us
└ Iwol’s cool tone is too hard to copy…
└ If you search, all of Kim Iwol’s stuff needs to be bought from overseasㅠㅠ We need a personal color category just for ‘Iwol Cool-Tone’
≫ The captions ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Idols’ beauty check time ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
└ Other idols be like ‘Am I pretty?’ then cut to Spark holding up three mirrors checking side profile, front, and cushion coverage levels
└ Jeong Seongbinㅋㅋㅋ He’s not wiping Park Joowoo’s sweat, he’s letting it soak into the tissue
└ That’s our leader’s way of caring for the members
≫ It’s the first time I’ve seen someone like Choi Jeho holding a mirror like that
Uh… does this team just have no concept of swag?
└ Our Jeho just lives as he is, naturally
└ If he tries to act cool, he might get hung upside down by the eldest hyung
└ But actually, all the kids are just gentleㅋㅋㅋㅋ Even if they don’t look like it
It’s all because of that beauty livestream you guys did on ISD.
A cosmetics advertisement for a rookie group was something to be thankful for. Compared to app or financial ads, cosmetics had high public visibility and were easier for fans to engage with.
Provided, of course, that the campaign wasn’t terrible.
Cosmetics advertisements were either hit or miss. Incredibly sophisticated and trendy, or extremely old-fashioned.
What kind of ad Spark would get would depend on the brand. It would also differ depending on which stores and which display shelves the ad would be on.
In that regard, the brand that made the offer this time was quite good. It had a certain level of recognition, no major issues with product quality, and its functionality was decent enough that Spark had actually used it a few times.
The conditions were so good it felt like the heavens had helped us. For a rookie idol group, not in a position to be picky about advertisements, to get such an opportunity? How could we not take it?
But that was exactly why they couldn’t let their guard down. You go in dreaming about promoting skincare and end up stuck with hellfire red lipstick? At that point, forget store displays—time to pivot to an editorial concept.
“Do we know which product we’ll be advertising?”
At my question, the manager checked his phone.
“Yes. I heard it was included in the proposal… Ah.”
The manager’s finger, which had been scrolling, stopped.
“It’s a lipstick and a skincare line!”
Well then. Time to step up our beauty game.
* * *
After the decision to proceed with the advertisement, there wasn’t much for Spark to do specifically. The contract would be handled by the company, and it was common to receive the shooting storyboard on-site on the day of filming.
However, simply shooting the ad as instructed was not enough to survive in the harsh idol market. It also wouldn’t help me meet my KPI targets.
Besides, this advertisement thing… ultimately, it had to allow the advertiser to recoup their investment without deceiving the consumers.
No matter how many lipsticks Spark advertised that the general public bought, it wouldn’t compare to the quantity purchased by Sparklers.
Therefore, it was only right that merchandise of a quality that could satisfy the fans should be released alongside it.
If a ‘buy over X amount; event centered around Iwol ended up looking like a scam to fans, it was better not to do it at all.
Considering the shelf life of lipstick, asking fans to buy six just to collect all the photocards could come off as blatant exploitation.
If an ‘Iwol- Purchase over X amount event’ for marketing purposes was absolutely necessary, couldn’t we counter-propose a package deal to the advertiser?
By more actively utilizing non-color products like cleansers or skincare, we could broaden consumer choices and it wouldn’t require significant resources in preparing the event.
Iwol: Please make sure the members’ faces are featured prominently
Iwol: I would also appreciate it if you could inquire whether we can offer additional benefits like free gifts to the fans on the condition that we conduct further promotion by filming content like ‘What’s In My Bag’ for our self-produced content. I will include a link to a reference video @Jeho, get yourself a bag while you’re at it.
└ Cheonghyeon: @Jeho Seriously, hyung, how long are you going to carry my dust bag around?
└ Jeho: Want it back? It’s in my room
└ Cheonghyeon: @Jeho That’s not what I meant~~~~ :tired_face:
With all these requests now posted to Dotion, I only had one thing left to do.
“Hyung, what are you doing…?”
“Real-use testing of the advertised product.”
Finding the product’s strengths to give an honest advertisement.
Park Joowoo, seeing me apply the lipstick that was described in the proposal as a ‘product that naturally adds vitality,’ hesitated before asking.
“…Don’t tell me you paid for it?”
“I got it as a sample. There should be a few more left at the company.”
After finishing my lip line, I asked Park Joowoo for confirmation.
“How is it? Do I look like I have more vitality?”
“You do, but… I don’t know if it’s thanks to the lipstick or because your dark circles are gone.”
“That’s not very helpful.”
The non-flashy tone was as described, application was smooth, and even the scent was nice, but the ‘vitality’ aspect is ambiguous… huh.
As I was jotting down my review, Lee Cheonghyeon chimed in.
“I’m asking out of pure curiosity, but is there a reason to go this far? You know, an advertisement is also a type of contract. Isn’t it enough to provide services commensurate with the payment?”
In Lee Cheonghyeon’s hand was a book titled ‘How to Survive in Capitalist Society.’ This kid, how deeply impressed was he by ‘Act on’?
“That’s true. But ultimately, the target for the products Spark advertises is the Sparklers, so shouldn’t we show as much sincerity as possible?”
“Ah!”
At my words, Lee Cheonghyeon dashed off somewhere.
A short while later, a new reply was posted on Dotion.
└ Cheonghyeon: I plan to decorate Iwol hyung’s lipstick photocard with the new product~! Please slot it in when we’re out of self-produced content ideas!
└ Seongbin: @Cheonghyeon :clapping_hands: