Kitchen Soldier — The Park Ji-hoon Chicken PPL That Hit #1 on Baemin
Park Ji-hoon Cooks His Own Chicken-Brand Tie-In On Screen — And Korean Viewers Lost It
This week the kitchen-soldier-themed drama pulled off one of those rare K-drama PPL moments where the product placement is the scene. Park Ji-hoon — already the face of 'Giyoung's Charcoal Chicken' in real life — gets handed his own brand's pork-rind noodles (돼껍누들) to cook on camera, complete with the spicy glaze his contract probably mandates.
Korean fans on theqoo immediately clocked the meta-layering. The PPL went straight to #1 on Baemin (Korea's largest delivery app) within hours of broadcast.
What Korean viewers said
Korean meme preservation: ㅋㅋㅋ → 'kekeke', ㅠㅠ → 'T_T', ㅈㄴ ('jin-jja'/really) kept. Comments are from the source thread in display order — we keep dissenting takes in the cut, no cherry-picking.
[the meta-PPL appreciation thread]
The way they actually committed to this PPL kekekekeke daebak ㅋㅋㅋㅋ
— theqoo, drama hot
Honestly, signing Park Ji-hoon for the chicken brand BEFORE 'Wang-sa-nam' (the drama) blew up is some next-level prescience kekeke. I tried Giyoung's chicken because of him and it's actually good.
— theqoo, drama hot
The donut-looking white thing they kept showing in the cooking shot — I had to Google 'pork-rind noodles recipe' to figure out it was Giyoung's Charcoal Chicken kekekek. Smart move on the PPL.
— theqoo, drama hot
I literally watched a different chicken brand tonight, came home, watched this scene… and now I really want to order it again. Send help.
— theqoo, drama hot
A PPL this natural — the advertiser must be euphoric kekekeke.
— theqoo, drama hot
The chicken model himself cooking the chicken kekeke. Park Ji-hoon plates it really appetizingly too kekeke
— theqoo, drama hot
[the dissent — not everyone loved it]
Eh, I ordered it once. The pork-rind noodles and the spicy glaze were actually good, but the salt-grilled version smelled off — won't reorder. T_T
— theqoo, drama hot
Depends on the branch (점바점). The location I ordered from had a weird smell. My friend's branch was apparently fine.
— theqoo, drama hot
[the punchline]
Fine. Fine. I'll order it.
— theqoo, drama hot
Why this PPL worked (translator's note)
Korean PPL is usually clunky enough to be a meme of its own (홍보 시키신 분? — 'who arranged for this promo, exactly?'). What Korean viewers are reacting to here is a triple-stack: the drama's chef-character makes the dish on screen → the actor is the real-world brand model → the brand had foresight to lock him in before the drama hit. The fact that it spiked to #1 on Baemin within hours of broadcast is the proof point everyone's pointing at.
A handful of viewers also flag honest branch-quality issues (점바점 — 'store-by-store variance' — a recurring frustration with Korea's franchise model). That's why the dissent stays in the cut.
