You Can Buy Anything
I made a rather sad discovery yesterday night. Karen wrote something about watching '30 rock' on my facebook wall and I wanted to see the episode she was talking about and looked for it on abc.com. To my dismay, I discovered that apparently you can't watch any tv shows from the internet (or download any movies from netflix) in Asia because of the huge pirating issues they have. My roommate suggested I watch this Korean Soap called "Princess Hours,"about this girl who has to marry this douchebag Prince (just for clarification there is no Royal family in Korea), that was fairly amusing:
Although, I was really pissed that i couldn't watch my show, I can actually understand the sentiment behind trying to do whatever possible to stop pirating here. There are seriously bootleg copies of movies EVERYWHERE. Similarly, there's a lot of knock of clothes of American brands. Hollister and Abercrombie are really popular but for some reason if you go to an actual store, the clothes costs about twice the American price (someone told me because it's imported but I highly doubt that those clothes are actually manufactured in the U.S.). I seriously saw a shirt that I bought for like $30 in the states selling for $80 here. Same thing goes for purses (saw a Chanel purse selling for an extra $1,000!). Unfortunately for me, the price of knock offs is approximately the regular price in the U.S. :-(
Copyright infringement seem to be a lot less important in Korea in general. There's a coffee company here, whose name I am currently forgetting, that has almost identical signage to Starbucks. Although I don't really feel bad for Starbucks because everything they sell in Seoul is AT LEAST $1 more than in Philly/Columbia/NYC. I'm running out of money to feed my habit! I've been forced to cut down to a cup every other day. Speaking of Starbucks being horrible in Korea, all the coffee chains (Starbucks, Starbucks rip off, 7 monkeys, the Coffee Bean, etc.) do this thing where every time you buy something they'll stamp this little card and after 10 drinks you get a free one. I combined cards with some of my friends and I have already had a free frappucino. I consider the fact that they don't do this on the Starbucks on 34th street a personal tragedy.
My friend Nikki and I went to Coex mall all day Monday.
It was enjoyable mostly because we were able to eat HAMBURGERS AND FRIES WITH COKE!!!! One of my friends wrote a reflection paper on the materialism of Korean society and I definitely could see what she was talking about at COEX. Koreans seriously perfected the art of selling anything to anyone. The prime example of this is the incredible amount of STUFF that you can buy once you have a significant other. It's a little ridiculous. So many couples wear these really cheesey 'couple t-shirts.' These shirts will say things like "This is my Boyfriend" with an arrow pointing to where the boyfriend is supposed to be standing wearing his shirt that says 'This is my Girlfriend" with the corresponding arrow. Btw unless you are an Alzheimers patient, I would hope you would recognize your significant other standing next to you without the help of a tshirt. Then the front will say something in English that vaguely makes sense like "Loving Forever and Ever Babe" or 'We Make Our Dream Come True.' At first, I thought it was a little bit much but still cute. But then I saw the store The Kiss Couple's. The store, which is a chain, is literally filled entirely with jewelry for couples. It was just kind of creepy because the way the store was arranged and the images on the walls were very clearly trying to make people feel as though they were buying love and not just STUFF. I've never taken marketing or anything but I've always been impressed with those De Beers commercials. When you think about what they're selling, rocks which quite possibly could have helped fund a civil war, the ads have nothing to do with the product. They're selling diamonds but communicating romance. I guess I'm a hypocrite though because I really like that one commercial where the husband slides the diamond necklace on his wife's neck as she's sleeping...I also like diamonds and sleeping....so.....get on that.
Speaking of hypocrisy, I was so happy about the presents I bought my parents today. I went back to Insadong, which is kind of like a more artsy version of Chelsea in the city. While we were in Insadong, I sustained a shopping related cut to my hand and am eternally grateful that my tetanus shots are up to date. Thus, I have gotten injured in some form the past 3 times that I have left the country. hot.
Although, I was really pissed that i couldn't watch my show, I can actually understand the sentiment behind trying to do whatever possible to stop pirating here. There are seriously bootleg copies of movies EVERYWHERE. Similarly, there's a lot of knock of clothes of American brands. Hollister and Abercrombie are really popular but for some reason if you go to an actual store, the clothes costs about twice the American price (someone told me because it's imported but I highly doubt that those clothes are actually manufactured in the U.S.). I seriously saw a shirt that I bought for like $30 in the states selling for $80 here. Same thing goes for purses (saw a Chanel purse selling for an extra $1,000!). Unfortunately for me, the price of knock offs is approximately the regular price in the U.S. :-(
Copyright infringement seem to be a lot less important in Korea in general. There's a coffee company here, whose name I am currently forgetting, that has almost identical signage to Starbucks. Although I don't really feel bad for Starbucks because everything they sell in Seoul is AT LEAST $1 more than in Philly/Columbia/NYC. I'm running out of money to feed my habit! I've been forced to cut down to a cup every other day. Speaking of Starbucks being horrible in Korea, all the coffee chains (Starbucks, Starbucks rip off, 7 monkeys, the Coffee Bean, etc.) do this thing where every time you buy something they'll stamp this little card and after 10 drinks you get a free one. I combined cards with some of my friends and I have already had a free frappucino. I consider the fact that they don't do this on the Starbucks on 34th street a personal tragedy.
My friend Nikki and I went to Coex mall all day Monday.
It was enjoyable mostly because we were able to eat HAMBURGERS AND FRIES WITH COKE!!!! One of my friends wrote a reflection paper on the materialism of Korean society and I definitely could see what she was talking about at COEX. Koreans seriously perfected the art of selling anything to anyone. The prime example of this is the incredible amount of STUFF that you can buy once you have a significant other. It's a little ridiculous. So many couples wear these really cheesey 'couple t-shirts.' These shirts will say things like "This is my Boyfriend" with an arrow pointing to where the boyfriend is supposed to be standing wearing his shirt that says 'This is my Girlfriend" with the corresponding arrow. Btw unless you are an Alzheimers patient, I would hope you would recognize your significant other standing next to you without the help of a tshirt. Then the front will say something in English that vaguely makes sense like "Loving Forever and Ever Babe" or 'We Make Our Dream Come True.' At first, I thought it was a little bit much but still cute. But then I saw the store The Kiss Couple's. The store, which is a chain, is literally filled entirely with jewelry for couples. It was just kind of creepy because the way the store was arranged and the images on the walls were very clearly trying to make people feel as though they were buying love and not just STUFF. I've never taken marketing or anything but I've always been impressed with those De Beers commercials. When you think about what they're selling, rocks which quite possibly could have helped fund a civil war, the ads have nothing to do with the product. They're selling diamonds but communicating romance. I guess I'm a hypocrite though because I really like that one commercial where the husband slides the diamond necklace on his wife's neck as she's sleeping...I also like diamonds and sleeping....so.....get on that.
Speaking of hypocrisy, I was so happy about the presents I bought my parents today. I went back to Insadong, which is kind of like a more artsy version of Chelsea in the city. While we were in Insadong, I sustained a shopping related cut to my hand and am eternally grateful that my tetanus shots are up to date. Thus, I have gotten injured in some form the past 3 times that I have left the country. hot.
posted by Sarah S | 8:00 AM
1 Comments:
"I consider the fact that they don't do this on the Starbucks on 34th street a personal tragedy."
which one? haha
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home