Rich K-Pop Fans Have Spent Hundreds of Thousands This Year To Buy Ads in NYC’s Times Square

Remember when BTS was featured on the Times Square billboard in New York City celebrating their fourth anniversary earlier this year?

Or like back in October for Jimin’s birthday, when his face was again front and center in the busiest square in the U.S.?

And also earlier this month when Kang Daniel’s birthday rolled around, keeping the ad up for an entire week?

You can’t forget when fans celebrated EXO’s fifth anniversary as well — again, Times Square featured the boy band in all their hallyu splendor.

How about just yesterday, when BTS fans again bought adspace for their beloved band, this time thanking Jimin specifically for the hard work he’d done this year?

You get the idea: K-pop fans put their money where their mouth is — or at least, where millions of eyes are.

via Wikimedia Commons / chensiyuan (CC BY-SA 4.0)

But you just have to wonder — how much do these ads cost? They can’t be cheap, right?

Turns out they are definitely not cheap! Although the cost can vary, like during the time of year and length of ad run, you can expect to pay tens of thousands of dollars for just a few minutes of exposure out of every hour. According to Allkpop, the Kang Daniel ad set fans back anywhere from $21,000 to $35,000.

“Fans wanted to deliver encouragement as the birthday gift. About 300 fans came together for it,” said one organizer. “The value changes a lot, but for one day, it’s around 3000 – 5000 USD per day.”