From Buses to Stores, Red Velvet’s Irene Is All Over Korea With China Fanbase’s Unbelievable Birthday Project
Red Velvet’s leader Irene is turning 29 years old (international age), and her fans are going all out to celebrate. It’s not uncommon for fans to buy dozens or even hundreds of birthday advertisements to celebrate their idols’ birthdays, but Irene’s China fanbase Irene Bar may have organized one of the biggest projects to date with thousands of ads all across the country.
One of the most impressive parts of Irene Bar’s project is that Irene’s birthday ads will be displayed in all Olive Young stores in South Korea. Olive Young is considered the most popular cosmetics store in the country, with over 1,200 stores nationwide.
In each store, her ads will run for 30 seconds at a time over 100 times a day over a week-long period.
아이린 올리브영 생일광고 🥳❤️💗 pic.twitter.com/ttPQhFYNWp
— 만배 (@oneBAE_0329) March 28, 2020
That may sound like an insane number of ads, but it wasn’t enough for Irene Bar. The fanbase has also purchased 1,072 billboards across the entire 9 lines of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway network.
This part of the project includes electronic displays, LED signs, and platform billboards across numerous stations, so fans will be able to see Irene almost everywhere they travel.
There’s even something for fans who prefer buses over subway trains. Irene Bar has purchased bus wrap advertisements on 3 bus routes too. One of the routes travels to and from COEX mall, where the SMTOWN museum, café, and store are located.
The fanbase is calling this design the “Sprene Bus”—a mixture of beautiful spring blossoms and beautiful Irene. Public transport has never been so attractive.
The list goes on, as Irene Bar went on to buy even more electronic billboards and advertisements. Some of the ads will even be displayed in Incheon International Airport, the 16th busiest airport in the world.
Last but not least, the birthday advertisement project also includes something for fans who are stuck at home due to COVID-19 (novel coronavirus)—social media ads. These advertisements will be displayed on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Korean messaging app KakaoTalk.
Without a doubt, this is one of the biggest birthday projects idol fans have seen so far. According to the fanbase, Irene is now the first female K-Pop star to receive over 1,000 subway ads for just one birthday.
[INFO] Irene is the first female idol in South Korea to have more than 1,000 subway ads 👏🥳
Big thanks to Irene’s fansites, especially IreneBar and chinese fans!
Cr: IreneBar Weibo
🔗 https://t.co/XNuCDiN3g4#레드벨벳 #아이린 #IRENE @RVsmtown pic.twitter.com/AFh9NzfdYr— IRENEⁿᵉʷˢ (@IRENE__news) March 28, 2020
Talk about the scale of project has been trending on Korean discussion portals like The Qoo, where netizens have pointed out that this would be considered a large-scale project even when compared to many male idols.
@IreneBar_ 여긴가 hoxy…? 하고 서있었는데 바로 광고 나와서 깜놀ㅋㅋㅋ 멋진 광고 준비해주셔서 감사합니다🥰💜 pic.twitter.com/7WxOw5XhKv
— 💕벳츄💕 (@betchuwanna801) March 28, 2020
On top of that, there are all the smaller projects from Korean fanbases too. Many fans have purchased billboards, and at least 7 café cupholder events have been organized.
@IreneBar_ 명동 올리브영에서 주현이 보고 왔다♥♥ 예쁜 주현이 광고 감사해요❤ pic.twitter.com/Yh5Bs63e3D
— 크리미 (@creamy_0305) March 28, 2020
Irene Bar had also planned to organize an event at the new tteokbokki museum in Daegu. Daegu is Irene’s hometown, and tteokbokki is her number 1 favorite food. Unfortunately, COVID-19 restrictions stopped the plan from going ahead.
That aside, anyone in Korea who likes Red Velvet’s “original visual” will certainly be happy every time they step outside over the next week.
