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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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 Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:03 am Post subject: Appearance is power |
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Korean MEN spent almost $500 million on skincare last year, 21% of global sales. They are expected to spend more than $885 million this year.
http://news.yahoo.com/korean-men-makeup-foundation-success-051134289.html
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| Evidence of this new direction in South Korean masculinity is easy to find. In a crowded Seoul cafe, a young woman takes some lipstick out of her purse and casually applies it to her male companion's lips as they talk. At an upscale apartment building, a male security guard watches the lobby from behind a layer of makeup. Korean Air holds once-a-year makeup classes for male flight attendants. |
Man, you just can't make this stuff up. |
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thrylos
Joined: 10 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:45 am Post subject: |
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| The comments are even better than the article.... |
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Seoulman69
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:26 am Post subject: |
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| I use a face lotion with sun block in it to protect my skin against the sun. I don't think I would bother with make up but to each his own. |
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alongway
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:54 am Post subject: |
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There is a big difference between Skincare and make-up.. as usual the media has lumped them together with a couple anecdotal examples to create a "trend" in some far-off exotic country.
This is the same as all the articles declaring any bizarre weird crap that came out of japan as a "new trend" but when you actually asked anyone who lived there if they'd seen it they'd always answer "What? God no..that'd be weird" |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:48 am Post subject: |
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| alongway wrote: |
There is a big difference between Skincare and make-up.. as usual the media has lumped them together with a couple anecdotal examples to create a "trend" in some far-off exotic country.
This is the same as all the articles declaring any bizarre weird crap that came out of japan as a "new trend" but when you actually asked anyone who lived there if they'd seen it they'd always answer "What? God no..that'd be weird" |
Really? So you tone, exfoliate, cleanse, scrub, and moisturize? Apply body lotion, hand cream, eye gel? That's all skincare. And that's just the start.
And that's all mentioned in the article. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:52 am Post subject: |
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| alongway wrote: |
There is a big difference between Skincare and make-up.. as usual the media has lumped them together with a couple anecdotal examples to create a "trend" in some far-off exotic country.
This is the same as all the articles declaring any bizarre weird crap that came out of japan as a "new trend" but when you actually asked anyone who lived there if they'd seen it they'd always answer "What? God no..that'd be weird" |
You would have had a good point if there wasn't a photo of a Korean 'man' touching up his eyeliner. |
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newb
Joined: 27 Aug 2012
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:54 am Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| alongway wrote: |
There is a big difference between Skincare and make-up.. as usual the media has lumped them together with a couple anecdotal examples to create a "trend" in some far-off exotic country.
This is the same as all the articles declaring any bizarre weird crap that came out of japan as a "new trend" but when you actually asked anyone who lived there if they'd seen it they'd always answer "What? God no..that'd be weird" |
Really? So you tone, exfoliate, cleanse, scrub, and moisturize? Apply body lotion, hand cream, eye gel? That's all skincare. And that's just the start.
And that's all mentioned in the article. |
Oooosh... you won't have any skin left after all that cleansin', scrubbin', and submitting yourself to unknown chemical. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:58 am Post subject: |
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| Stuff like this explains why I don't have many male Korean friends. I can't hang about with a dude who has to keep going to the bathroom to adjust his lipstick. |
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alongway
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:08 am Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| alongway wrote: |
There is a big difference between Skincare and make-up.. as usual the media has lumped them together with a couple anecdotal examples to create a "trend" in some far-off exotic country.
This is the same as all the articles declaring any bizarre weird crap that came out of japan as a "new trend" but when you actually asked anyone who lived there if they'd seen it they'd always answer "What? God no..that'd be weird" |
Really? So you tone, exfoliate, cleanse, scrub, and moisturize? Apply body lotion, hand cream, eye gel? That's all skincare. And that's just the start.
And that's all mentioned in the article. |
Of course it is, it is mentioned. Utterly without context. The big number:
"South Korean men spent $495.5 million on skincare last year," is as ambiguous as can be. Moisturizer is skin care. They don't provide any reliable stats on how many men are doing anything beyond slapping on moisturizer or sun screen (you can be sure that sun screen is probably lumped in with that number)
No, they've taken a big number and slapped a couple personal stories around it to make it seem as if that is what everyone is doing.
You bought it hook line and sinker.
They make a completely unsourced statement like " has become the male makeup capital of the world" and their backup is the above-mentioned ambiguous figure. make-up≠skin care. They then start to play fast and loose with vocabulary by changing the word "skin care" to "cosmetics" technically correct, but most people who think "cosmetics" don't think moisturizer, they think make-up, lipstick, foundation, eye-liner, etc.
They then go on to say "Evidence of this new direction in South Korean masculinity is easy to find." and then provide a couple of anecdotal out of context stories. If evidence is so easy to find, why provide the only kind of evidence that isn't really evidence at all?
There is nothing new about "metrosexual" don't you recall it was a big buzzword in the west a few years back. If you looked you could probably find the same amount of guys to give a personal story in any country similar to this. The question is whether or not it's a general trend or just some reporter reaching. Given the lack of hard numbers actually appearing in the article and little more than conjecture, I'm guessing it's the latter.
Welcome to your lesson on media BS 101. |
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cj1976
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:13 am Post subject: |
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| This country has plenty of girly men because the women love it. If that isn't motivation to put a dab of mascara on, then I don't know what is.. |
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liveinkorea316
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 4:50 am Post subject: |
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| alongway wrote: |
| atwood wrote: |
| alongway wrote: |
There is a big difference between Skincare and make-up.. as usual the media has lumped them together with a couple anecdotal examples to create a "trend" in some far-off exotic country.
This is the same as all the articles declaring any bizarre weird crap that came out of japan as a "new trend" but when you actually asked anyone who lived there if they'd seen it they'd always answer "What? God no..that'd be weird" |
Really? So you tone, exfoliate, cleanse, scrub, and moisturize? Apply body lotion, hand cream, eye gel? That's all skincare. And that's just the start.
And that's all mentioned in the article. |
Of course it is, it is mentioned. Utterly without context. The big number:
"South Korean men spent $495.5 million on skincare last year," is as ambiguous as can be. Moisturizer is skin care. They don't provide any reliable stats on how many men are doing anything beyond slapping on moisturizer or sun screen (you can be sure that sun screen is probably lumped in with that number)
No, they've taken a big number and slapped a couple personal stories around it to make it seem as if that is what everyone is doing.
You bought it hook line and sinker.
They make a completely unsourced statement like " has become the male makeup capital of the world" and their backup is the above-mentioned ambiguous figure. make-up≠skin care. They then start to play fast and loose with vocabulary by changing the word "skin care" to "cosmetics" technically correct, but most people who think "cosmetics" don't think moisturizer, they think make-up, lipstick, foundation, eye-liner, etc.
They then go on to say "Evidence of this new direction in South Korean masculinity is easy to find." and then provide a couple of anecdotal out of context stories. If evidence is so easy to find, why provide the only kind of evidence that isn't really evidence at all?
There is nothing new about "metrosexual" don't you recall it was a big buzzword in the west a few years back. If you looked you could probably find the same amount of guys to give a personal story in any country similar to this. The question is whether or not it's a general trend or just some reporter reaching. Given the lack of hard numbers actually appearing in the article and little more than conjecture, I'm guessing it's the latter.
Welcome to your lesson on media BS 101. |
Korean men make up more than 25% of the world spending on skincare products but less than 1% of the population of men. It's safe to say we didn't misunderstand the article. We realize they are the most metrosexual of them all. |
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alongway
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:21 am Post subject: |
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| Korean men make up more than 25% of the world spending on skincare products but less than 1% of the population of men. It's safe to say we didn't misunderstand the article. We realize they are the most metrosexual of them all. |
Considering 21 is not more than 25 yeah I could say you misunderstood a lot.
Another tell-tale sign is that a google search on key facts in the story reveals nothing. not a single other agency even reporting this fact, heck even this article doesn't even turn up.
But again, you've got a media piece playing fast and loose with loaded vocabulary, ambiguous meanings, etc
There is still 79% of the spending out there, and they didn't bother to break down the other big players at all.
You want to buy it, go ahead, at least I know I can think critically about something. |
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nathanrutledge
Joined: 01 May 2008
Location: Marakesh
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 5:57 am Post subject: |
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http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-05-26/beauty/27746010_1_british-men-skincare-british-blokes
In 2008, British men spent 806 million pounds on "toiletries" (1.3 billion dollars).
http://www.livestrong.com/skin-care-for-men/
In 2010, this article says that the WORLDWIDE total sales for mens skincare was 217 million dollars.
You can google more if you'd like, by the point is that the numbers are meaningless if we don't know what all is included.
I'd point out that the two authors of the main article are Korean, and I would submit that the errors are due to linguistic trouble. Korean can be very ambiguous and people figure it out. If you fail to understand it, it is YOUR fault, not the speaker/writers. However, as we all know, it's the opposite in English. The writers are at fault for this ambiguity.
Are they talking makeup only? Skin care only? Both? Only products designed specifically for men, or products bought by men? This is so ambiguous. Alongway is right - it's a crap article. |
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NYC_Gal 2.0
Joined: 10 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:06 am Post subject: |
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| What's wrong with washing and moisturizing your face? I mean, you don't have to go all Patrick Bateman, but basic skincare is important. |
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transmogrifier
Joined: 02 Jan 2012
Location: Seoul, South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2012 6:09 am Post subject: |
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| cj1976 wrote: |
| This country has plenty of girly men because the women love it. .. |
Yep. It's a simple fact of cultural evolution that so much of it is driven by the preferences of females when it comes to choosing partners. Some say it may even have influenced the evolution of races.
So choose wisely, girls! |
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