Singer Jini, formerly of the group NMIXX, almost binged after making her name from snacks that had names printed on them.
On the 22nd, Jini posted a photo on her social media account with the caption "trying to make a name that doesn't exist... I almost binged on Kancho."
In the photo, Jini verified that she had formed her name from snacks with names printed on them that have recently caused sellouts. However, rather than having her full name printed on a single snack, she formed her real name by taking one character each from two snacks.
LOTTE Wellfood has been running the "find my name" event since the 6th. The company released products of the snack Kancho with consumers' names engraved, and the consumer participation event runs through Nov. 6. With 500 newborn names recently registered in Korea and four brand character names randomly engraved, consumers who find their own name or a friend's name can enter by posting a verification photo with the required hashtags.
The trend has spread mainly on social media and gained popularity. Especially among teenagers, it has become a play culture to find the names of idols they like and post them on social media, leading to sales in all convenience stores rising at least twofold and up to threefold compared with the previous year and the previous month. Some stores even experienced sellouts.
Recently, singer IU participated in the challenge. IU conducted a live broadcast on a global fan platform to test whether her real name "Jieun" would appear. After opening a bag and checking the names, IU interacted affectionately with any names that appeared, but she became downcast when only her own name did not appear.
In the end, a staff member cut "Ji" and "eun" and forcibly made a "Jieuni" snack, which IU received, saying "thank you" while unable to hide her disappointment. IU said, "Because my name is somewhat common, I thought it would appear right away, but surprisingly it didn't."
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