Seoul Ad Agencies Find West Has Fresh Faces, Better Deals

Brooke Shields and Shannen Doherty are starting to appear in commercials here, taking the place of South Korean celebrities who are overexposed and overpaid, advertising executives said.

Seoul advertising agencies are looking overseas for famous faces to use in their advertisements because fees are rising for the country’s relatively small stable of home-grown stars. They are finding that a little glitz from the West is more economical.

In the latest case, one of South Korea’s major advertising agencies, Cheil Communications, signed a $140,000 contract with Shields for a television commercial to promote a new drink called Aloe Mine.

“We will start shooting in December, and we plan to start the ad in Korea in January,” an agency official said.

Doherty, who became well-known in South Korea for her role in the Fox television series “Beverly Hills, 90210” has appeared in a cosmetics commercial under a $250,000 contract with another agency, LG ad.

“This is just the beginning. We will soon see many more of the foreign models,” an LG official said.

He said it would have cost his agency nearly double to use a top South Korean model.

“The rate here now is outrageous,” he said. “The foreign rates are what you call reasonable. We have a big and serious problem in our country.”

Price is not the only reason agencies are turning to foreign models.

“Some of the top local models are in about six to 10 different ads. Viewers get confused and it doesn’t help promote the products,” said Cho Hyuk at a local advertising agency.

“We need new faces.”

One industry source said a male actor who recently shot to stardom had begun asking for $315,000 an advertisement when only last year he could be obtained for slightly more than $12,500.

“Here in Korea, top actresses are top models, and there are only a few people available in the market,” the source said.

An official at South Korea’s Information Ministry said the regulations on foreign models were relaxed last June, making it easier for agencies to hire Western movie and television stars who are well-known in South Korea.

“Before, it was complicated, but now it’s much simpler,” he said. “And as the ads are usually shot overseas, there isn’t the hassle of trying to bring in the models.”

However, the marketing division of one noodle-making company said it had to cancel plans to bring in a foreign actor for one of its ads because of “too many complications.”

“Isn’t it funny that the minister says it’s OK to go out and shoot but makes it difficult to bring in one of them and shoot here?” a company official said.

He said it was too expensive for his company to make an advertisement overseas and it was difficult to arrange for foreign models to work here because they needed working visas, which could be hard to obtain.

In homogeneous South Korea, the reaction to seeing Doherty on television appears mixed.

“It’s nice to see a fresh face. Ads get very boring because they use the same people all the time,” said Chun Yong-ae, a 24-year-old student.