Reworking the Cultural Imaginary: K-Pepsi Chile, Neo K-Pop, and Exoticized Otherness

Abstract:This study will analyze the stylistic components and expressions of Korean popular culture found in advertisements featuring K-Pepsi Chile. In 2020, Pepsi Chile recruited five male K-pop fans talented in dancing and singing to form a Chilean K-pop group called K-Pepsi Chile. What elements of K-pop are shown in these ads, and how did Chilean K-pop fans perceive and reinterpret their Koreanness? To answer these questions, a content analysis will be conducted on the K-Pepsi Chile music videos. YouTube users' comments on the videos and the results of three focus group interviews with self-declared Chilean K-pop fans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight will also be analyzed to determine fans' perceptions of the presence (or absence) of the elements of K-pop and Koreanness in K-Pepsi Chile. Through this analysis, the study will explore the possible presence of stereotypes about K-pop and Korean culture. Additionally, it proposes the hypothesis that Chilean K-pop fans' negative perception of K-Pepsi Chile resulted from their identification of inauthentic K-pop elements in K-Pepsi Chile. The K-pop fans' rejection of K-Pepsi Chile resulted from their interpretation of it as an expression of Orientalism rather than a manifestation of Korean popular culture.