Viewers’ Reaction Towards BTS Appearance in the Tokopedia Advertisement

Kevin Jonathan - A11180013

Illona Mora Kartika - A11180061

English Department
Petra Christian University
2020
 Chapter 1
Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Famous people are a person who is in well-known condition and broad public
recognition, and it can be as an individual, group, character, or animal. There are many ways of
becoming a part of famous people, for instance from their professions, such as an artist or actor,
singer, rapper and vlogger. Another way to be a part of famous people can be from participation
in sports and politics in society or even because of wealth. Sometimes, famous people are also
implied as a favorable public image by people. One of the reasons is because these well-known
people can attract public attention during or after their outstanding appearance and talents.
However, on some occasions, some people consider the appearance of famous people does not
attract and bring positive impacts to the people but rather cause negative influences on society.

There are actually many jobs for famous people that they have to do. One of the most
popular jobs for famous people is asked to promote a product by some companies through video
advertisements. Advertisement is a promotion of a product or service to attract interest,
engagement, and sales. Previously, people had only pictures or photo advertisements. However,
in this modern era, technology is so advanced that we can create video advertisements and
publish them not only on TV but also on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, or
YouTube, to reach bigger audiences even from all around the world. The importance of a
commercial advertisement in marketing is that companies can communicate well with more
audiences without looking at their gender or socioeconomic background. By using a video
advertisement, the product will probably meet the target, which is an increase in sales. As a
result, the products that they are selling can compete attractively with other competitors in the
market. Nowadays, companies love to use famous people in their advertisements. Then, they
share it on social media to gain recognition and promote what they are selling to the people in
society. Some of the famous people whom the company recruited for the advertisement are even
from foreign countries. One example of advertisements with well-known people from foreign
countries in Indonesia is the online shop Tokopedia. Tokopedia posted a short and promotional
video on Instagram (@tokopedia) to promote its products by inviting BTS (Bangtan Boys),
which is one of the biggest and well-known K-pop groups from South Korea. These days, it is
true that South Korean’s culture, which is Korean Pop (Kpop), has toned up many teenagers in
Indonesia. Therefore, Tokopedia invites BTS to be in its advertisement to promote all the
products. In that video advertisement, there is one member from BTS, whose name is Suga, who
says that Tokopedia is number one in online shops every day in Bahasa. The advertisement also
describes its services that Tokopedia can help people trade-in their gadgets such as
smartwatches, smartphones, wireless speakers, etc in every condition, and it will give a definite
price. In that advertisement, we can see as well that Suga (the member of BTS) stands and
dances happily in Tokopedia’s booth. He also said that “Belanja, di Tokopedia saja.”
Furthermore, at the end of the video, there is a dubbing voice that said, “Kalau mau tukar tambah
HP lama sama yang baru,” then all BTS members replied by telling the viewers “Di Tokopedia
Saja.”

This video is posted on the Instagram page of Tokopedia. We find this very interesting
because there are a lot of comments in the video advertisement from the Instagram users
immediately after the companies posted the advertisement on Instagram. Moreover, this video
advertisement went viral as well on many online platforms, one of which is Twitter. It is proven
when suddenly the hashtag #TOKOPEDIAxBTS reached number one on trending twitter
Indonesia.

We want to analyze the Instagram user's reactions regarding the video advertisement,
which is posted on Tokopedia's Instagram with the Critical Discourse Analysis theory. Critical
Discourse Analysis is a field that is concerned with studying and examining written and spoken
texts as well to reveal the discursive source of power, dominance, inequality, and also bias.
Furthermore, by using this theory, it is also able to help us find out how these discursive sources
are maintained and reproduced within specific social, political, and historical contexts.
1.2 Statement of Problem

As we all know, Indonesia’s advertisement has used a lot of artists nowadays to promote
their products. Even the production team of the advertising does not hesitate to use foreign artists
such as South Korean artists. There might be different reactions for the audience because
Indonesia’s advertisements have not used South Korean artists before. We want to know as well
the impact of using foreign artists on the viewers. That is why we conclude our problem into the
these following statements
1. What does BTS show in the advertisement?
2. What aspects that make the advertisement become phenomenal?
3. How is the reaction from the audience toward the Tokopedia advertisement?

1.3 The Purpose of The Study

This paper aims to analyze Instagram users’ reactions towards the Tokopedia
advertisement. We want to analyze the reaction of Instagram users through their comments
regarding their opinion and feedback about Tokopedia, which is advertised with BTS
appearance. We would like to find out more whether using BTS from South Korea to promote
Tokopedia can bring positive effects towards Indonesian society or not. We choose Instagram
users because they are the ones who give comments at the particular promotional video. From
this observation, we will learn whether famous people indeed influence our society, because they
can cause many reactions, either positive or negative, to many people.

1.4 The Significance of The Study

We hope that our paper has some significances:
1. For business people
This paper can be used by business people to understand the power of famous people’s
appearance in an advertisement. Businessmen need to know the effect of using famous
people, specifically BTS, to promote their products before they decide to sign a contract
with certain famous people. When they understand the effect, they can choose the correct
 method to promote their products and attract customers to buy theirs rather than
competitors.
2. For other researchers
This paper may be used as a reference for a further study about famous people's
appearance in an advertisement.

1.5 Scope and Limitations

The field of this study is limited to discourse analysis, specifically critical discourse
analysis (CDA). We would like to use critical discourse analysis to analyze the problem because
it contains the concept that can help us to analyze this study specifically.
The subjects involved in this study are limited to Indonesian users of Instagram who
commented on the first week since the posting of the Tokopedia advertisement on Instagram on
March 16th, 2020. We do not give a limitation on age, gender and socioeconomic background,
so all commenters in the Tokopedia’s Instagram post can be the subjects of this study. The result
of this study cannot be generalized to all advertisements, but specific for advertisements with the
Korean band group, BTS appearance.

1.6 Definitions of The Key Terms

● Advertisement: Advertisements are messages paid for by those who send them and are
intended to inform or influence people who receive them (Advertising Association of the
UK)
● Discourse analysis: (a) concerned with language use beyond the boundaries of a
sentence/utterance, (b) concerned with the interrelationships between language and
society and (c) as concerned with the interactive or dialogic properties of everyday
communication (Stubbs, 1983, p. 1)
● Critical Discourse Analysis: a qualitative analytical approach for critically describing,
interpreting, and explaining the ways in which discourses construct, maintain, and
legitimize social inequalities (Mullet, 2018)

1.7 Organizations of The Study.

 The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter discusses the introduction of the
study, which consists of the background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the
study, significance of the study, scope and limitation, and definition of key terms. For the second
chapter, it discusses the review of related literature that consists of related theories and studies.
Then, on the third chapter, it consists of the research method, sample of the study, data collection
procedure, and also data analysis technique.
 CHAPTER 2
Review of Related Literature

2.1 Main Theory

From all the readings that we have learnt, we have found some theories that may help us
do the research. The main theory that we are going to use in this paper is Critical Discourse
Analysis (CDA), which is a methodology that enables a vigorous assessment of what is meant
when language is used to describe and explain. CDA develops discourse socially in such a way
that it involves social conditions of production (e.g., text) as well as social conditions of
interpretation. It is the linguistic form of social interaction that is either embedded in the social
context of a situation or that it interprets the social system that constitutes the culture of
institutions or society as a whole. It is a product of its environment and it functions in that
environment through the process of interaction and semantic choice. Text is the realization of
such an environment. It treats discourse as a type of social practice, including visual images,
music, gestures, and the like that represent and endorse it. On the other hand, texts are produced
by socially situated speakers and writers. For participants in discourse, their relations in
producing texts are not always equal: there will be a range from complete solidarity to complete
inequality. Meanings come about through interaction between readers and receivers and
linguistic features come about as a result of social processes, which are never arbitrary. Critical
discourse analysis therefore examines the form, structure and content of discourse, from the
grammar and wording employed in its creation to its reception and interpretation by a wider
audience. The employment of verbs, pronouns and nouns within discourse is as much part of this
analysis as the assessment of the content and tone of the discourse. The methodology facilitates
an assessment based upon more than simple quotations but upon what the discourse is doing and
what it is being asked to do in its production, dissemination and consumption.

2.2 Review of Related Studies

 Arumugam, Kaur, and Yunus (2013) have conducted a study examining beauty
advertisements in Malaysia’s English magazines from a Critical Discourse Analysis perspective.
This study mainly focused on the use of language in beauty advertisements and strategies
employed by advertisers to manipulate and influence their customers. Arumugam et al (2013)
used Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework for the analysis. It demonstrates how the
ideology of ‘beauty’ is produced and reproduced through advertisements in popular Malaysia
women’s magazines. A qualitative research was conducted on beauty product advertisements in
two popular Malaysia women’s magazines, Cleo and Women’s Weekly. The findings of this
study indicated that advertisers used various strategies to manipulate the audiences. The
advertisements promote an idealised lifestyle and manipulate readers to a certain extent into
believing whatever that is advertised is indeed true. This study also revealed how the ideology of
beauty is constructed and reconstructed through magazines by stereotyping how beauty products
are synonymous with a better life. Advertising language is used to control people’s minds. Thus
people in power (advertisers) use language as a means to exercise control over others.
Khoiriyah (2016) has also conducted the same research on her thesis, titled Beauty
Concept in Toothpaste Advertisements: A Critical Discourse Analysis. In this thesis, one of the
main analyses is the text, which the advertisement used to persuade all the viewers. Khoiriyah
(2016) used Fairclough’s three dimensional models of discourse for the analysis. This thesis used
a qualitative approach by using content or document analysis to analyze the beauty concept in
toothpaste advertisement. The researcher also uses two processes such as analyzing the text and
visual image of advertisement and the content. The findings of this thesis reveal that by using the
positive adjectives, nouns, adverbs, such as brighter and whiter, it makes the viewers believe a
beauty concept of women should be fresh, young, and have white teeth. That is how beauty
looks.
 CHAPTER 3
Method of the Study

3.1 Approach
In this chapter, we are going to conduct descriptive qualitative research. We are going to
use descriptive qualitative research because we want to know other people’s reactions or
opinions about Tokopedia’s advertisement which uses foreign artist, BTS. The approach we are
going to use is narrative research, in which we must examine how stories are told to understand
how participants perceive and make sense of their experiences from the viewers’ comments.

3.2 Data Collection

The main source of the data is from Instagram, specifically from Tokopedia’s video with
BTS appearance. In that particular post, there are also hundreds of Indonesian netizens’
comments toward the video.
Next, we are going to use secondary research for our data collection. With this method,
we are going to watch the video for 2 times. After we have watched the video, we conduct non
participant observation for our analysis. The observation involves various comments from
netizens in Tokopedia’s Instagram post with BTS. We will choose only the top 20 comments
from a certain post featuring BTS, and analyze the reaction. The reason why we choose only the
top 20 comments is because those comments are more relatable with the content as well as the
artist of the advertisement.

3.3 Data Analysis

In this section, we will discuss how the data will be analyzed. First, we are going to
watch the video. After we have watched it, we start to collect the data by selecting the top 20
comments of Tokopedia’s advertisement video with BTS appearance. Then, we are going to
analyze with critical discourse analysis whether the comments are positive or negative. We will
put the results of the analysis in column by dividing the positive and negative ones. As a result,
we can understand the final result from viewers about Tokopedia Advertisement.
The following table can be an example of how we analyze the data:

Data Data (Comment) Meaning Reaction

Number (Positive/Negative)

1 “Kontennya banyakin lagi dong It means the viewers From the comments,
kak.” love the appearance it means the viewer
of BTS in the has a positive reaction
advertisement. They to BTS in Tokopedia
even anticipate the advertisement.
more content of BTS
in the Tokopedia
advertisement.

2. “KUTUNGGU TUNGGU” It means the viewer From the comments,

has been looking we can clearly see
forward to watching that the viewer is
the advertisement, enthusiastic with the
since the first time advertisement. This is
Tokopedia announced indeed a positive
it. reaction.
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