As we know, idol groups, most notoriously AKB48, will exploit fans who want to purchase ways to vote for members in “election” or for chances to shake their hand. They do this by selling these privileges as slips of paper included with CDs or other products.
The most recent campaign has been a tie-up with Kodansha’s Young Magazine, an iconic weekly manga magazine.
Kodansha chose a number of idol candidates from various groups (AKB48, NMB48, SKE48, HKT48) and said fans could choose the idol who will appear in a sexy swimsuit photo shoot. (The ladies on the cover are actually from Nogizaka46 but they are not part of the competition.)
Naturally, the fans want their top lady to win.
By purchasing the magazine, you got a slip of paper that you could use to vote for the lady you wanted to see in a swimsuit.
The problem is that there are ordinary Young Magazine customers who now can’t find their regular read on the shelf because some crazed AKB fan has gone and purchased the whole store’s stock. Last week social media was abuzz with annoyed readers unable to find their manga magazine.
As you can see in the pictures, Ryosuke@Boku bought a huge amount of magazines, priced around ¥500 ($4.20) each.
Ryosuke is a massive fan of Serika Nagano, the 13-year-old idol in AKB48. However, she is too young for the competition, it seems, so he has to make do with another girl.
This is not only cynicism on the part of the AKB agency but also the publishers, since they know they have fallen on harder times. Young Magazine shifted 1 million copies in 2004 but its sales have dropped considerably over the last ten years. It is now own to around 475,000. Stunts like this are sure ways to raise their sales, though they risk alienating their fans.
Even Rino Sashihara (whose own fans are legendary) has suggested to fans that they buy from multiple convenience stores rather than bulk buying from the same store, in order to avoid disappointing fans.
