HK husbands plead for brands to stop featuring boyband MIRROR in ads

Hong Kong boyband MIRROR has taken the city by storm so much so that a Facebook group titled "My wife married MIRROR and left my marriage in ruins" has been created for distressed husbands. Founded on 3 July, the group currently has more than 218k members at the time of writing. Members of the Facebook group claimed that the 12-member boyband has stolen the hearts of their wives and at times their sisters and mothers. One of the members even pleaded with companies not to use MIRROR as well as another Cantopop boyband ERROR in their marketing for mooncakes in the lead up to the Mid-Autumn Festival in September.

This is because the husbands will not be able to finish all of them. As a figure of speech, the comment said: "All husbands will eat to their deaths." Haagen-Dazs Hong Kong recently launched an ice cream mooncake featuring one of the band members, Keung To, in an ad. The comment had 14k reactions, 421 comments and 138 shares at the time of writing, and some husbands even joked and said MIRROR should promote products such as the PlayStation 5 as well as the iPhone.

Meanwhile, another group member asked: "If I fell into the water with Keung To, who will you save first?" and someone replied: "Of course, Keung To!" The wives' obsession with Keung To seems to have spilled over into luxury goods. A member shared images of his purchase from Cartier and Burberry, saying how his wife wanted a Cartier ring for their fifth anniversary and a gift from Burberry. Initially puzzled, he eventually found out it was because Keung To endorsed those two brands.

According to South China Morning Post, Keung To is the most popular member in MIRROR. He has secured ads and brand campaigns from companies including Cartier, HSBC, Chanel, McDonald's, and even Laura Mercier and Estee Lauder. MIRROR was formed through a reality TV talent competition named Good Night Show - King Maker that ran on ViuTV in 2018. Since then, MIRROR shot to fame and has worked with several brands including four Hong Kong Telecommunications' brands in 2019 for a brand campaign titled "Join The Club". It has also worked with McDonald's Hong Kong, Mannings, and UEFA EURO 2020.

Influencer marketing has become increasingly popular in Hong Kong nowadays, with brands turning to micro-influencers and nano-influencers, in particular. According to Vin Ng, business development director for Spread-it, Hong Kong’s largest micro-influencer platform, "all boats rise" whether a brand is working with a micro- or nano-level influencer. "Going micro does not mean having to ditch the big names; if you have the budget, it is always better to work with both," Ng told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE.

He also urged brands to view it like an iceberg, where a top-tier influencer or celebrity can give the brand campaign an instant hit of visibility and credibility, but all those smaller profiles down below will provide the brand with the bulk and substance that resonates from one individual to another.

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