Japanese TVXQ fans to raise a whopping five million yen for newspaper Ad

TVXQ/DBSK supporters in the motherland and overseas have been riveted by the SME lawsuit for the past few months, and it looks like a certain group of international fans is really stepping up its game.

Five Balloons, a group of Japanese TVXQ supporters, recently created the TVXQ Smile Project, in which members donated money to put an advertisement in a daily Korean newspaper. Its monetary goal for Christmas? A whopping five million yen, which is approximately 64,400,000 won, $54,700 USD, or the price of a pretty nice sports car. I never realized how astronomically high newspaper ad rates were… and why these fans would devote so much money to a boy group instead of a charity or something is beyond me, but that’s besides the point.

The ad is expected to include the words ‘TVXQ Smile Project,’ a message about TVXQ’s entity as a group only complete with five members, and a promise to forever love TVXQ and wait for them to sincerely smile.

As of yesterday, over four hundred participants collectively donated 1,764,000 yen (approx 22,700,000 won or $19,400 USD). Since this doesn’t meet the initial December 25 goal, the members plan to extend the period of donation collection and purchase the ad in mid-January.

2009 is widely known as the Year of the Girl Groups, but it might as well be called the Year of the Fans instead. From forming petitions to changing drama plots, from kicking an idol out of the country to a creating a global movement to bring the same person back, it’s become clear that fan support has definitely evolved and rocked the kpop world in many ways.

Credits: allkpop