Alcoholic beverage ads in Korea have often been criticized for encouraging under-aged drinking. To prevent having a negative influence on teenagers, Maehwasu applied high frequency technology to its ad so that the commercial message is clearly conveyed to adults while only annoying noise could be heard to the younger population that should not be drinking.

High frequency noise that is inaudible to adults but audible to teens was inserted to the creative to annoy teens and prevent them from becoming sexually stimulated by the advertisement.

Since the noise is audible only to teens, the brand’s sexually provocative message is effectively conveyed to the adult target.

Survey of 100 podcast listeners revealed that Maehwasu’s awareness increased by 88 percent while brand preference and webpage visit increased by 75 percent and 38 percent respectively. A lot of buzz was created on the SNS regarding the audibility of the noise.