Netflix’s latest teen romance To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before might have charmed a lot of people, but it would forever be remembered by Asians for the film introduced the West to our favourite probiotic yoghurt drink, Yakult. In a sheer display of the power of product placement, Yakult’s Netflix cameo helped boost sales and dairy producer Yakult Honsha Co. is absolutely loving it.
In a scene between Lara Jean (Lana Condor), Peter (Noah Centineo) and Kitty (Anna Cathcart), the yoghurt drink makes a brief, albeit masked appearance, and that seemed to be enough to put it on the map. What’s really absurd here is that the film never mentions Yakult by name, only referring it to as a “Korean yoghurt smoothie”.
But this uncredited cameo was enough to get people talking and according to research firm M Science’s TickerTags, which monitors the relationship between social media and a company’s performance, there was a spike in the “mention frequency” of Yakult after the release of the film on August 17.
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A still from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (Courtesy: Netflix)
According to Mark Bachman, head of M Science’s TickerTags, viewers managed to recognise the “distinct red foil top” of Yakult drinks, Bloomberg reported. “While the brand is of Japanese origin and was never mentioned by name in the movie, it is clearly a Yakult bottle, which Twitter users quickly noticed,” Bachman said.
Reportedly, there was also a spike in the shares of the stock, which rose by 2.6 percent since the film’s release, closing at 1.7 percent gain on Monday (the highest since June 31). “Given the increasing conversation levels, we believe Yakult is achieving greater brand awareness, which should likely result in higher sales volume,” Bachman added.
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Meanwhile, Asians on Twitter were pretty much taken aback that this was the first time the West was hearing about Yakult.
Let’s get one thing straight: the drinks in the photo are NOT called “Korean yogurt smoothie,” they are simply called YAKULT.
Plus, it’s Japanese, right?
The Asian in me is aghast by this faux pas (or was it intentional??) in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. pic.twitter.com/laUXBz7xU0
— Jane Bracher (@janebracher) August 25, 2018
Only white people didn’t know about Yakult before To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
— Stephanie (@noirwest) September 4, 2018
Yakult is selling out because of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before but Mexicans have BEEN on that wave
— eliel (@eliellopez14) September 4, 2018
wait…did people really not drink yakult until to all the boys i’ve loved before came out lmao
— gillian (@yerenesthetic) September 4, 2018
people buying yakult now bc of to all the boys i’ve loved before makes me anskdkskdkw where were all of y’all when i brought that shit to school and people thought it was another “weird asian thing”
— em / YOUNG|RELIFT (@emj_yi) September 4, 2018
Watching all the boys I’ve loved before on a whim and how the fuck has this guy never had yakult before??
— Ngoc PAX WEST send to #6006 (@ngoctmvu) September 4, 2018
Im dead, Peter Kavinsky isn’t the only snack people are going for because of “To all the Boys I’ve Loved before” @noahcent
Yakult sales are booming because of a Netflix film https://t.co/rEUGBBJjJZ
— Jen (@impossiblyjen) September 4, 2018
Watched To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and… I gotta ask…
Yakult wasn’t a staple of American kids childhoods????? Yakult was in every kid’s lunchbox in Monterrey
— Cris Sasegov (@csasegov) September 3, 2018
Yakult is selling out because of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before but Mexicans have BEEN on that wave
— eliel (@eliellopez14) September 4, 2018
my younger filipino ass never knew yakult was korean until i watched to all the boys i’ve loved before
— babygail (@abbygailnery) August 28, 2018
I’m glad white people were able to discover yakult from to all the boys I’ve loved before and add some culture to their lives
— swetha (@sclub87) September 3, 2018
All these basic peeps going out to buy Yakult after seeing To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before… and I’m sitting here sipping on this shit since grade school.
— Wayne Gretzky (@dennyd00) September 4, 2018
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