The sales of Yakult, a probiotic milk beverage fermented with the bacteria strain Lactobacillus paracasei Shirota, first isolated from the human intestine by Japanese scientists, got a boost from a Netflix teen comedy.
The teen romantic-comedy ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ is a film directed by Susan Johnson, based on Jenny Han’s 2014 novel of the same name. The film holds an approval rating of 95% on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 44 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10.
In the movie, Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), one of Lara Jean’s (Lana Condor) love interests, consumes the drink and comments, “Oh wow, that is really good.” He then asks Lara’s sister, Kitty (Anna Cathcart), “What do I have to do to get you to bring me one of these tomorrow?”
Bloomberg in quoting Mark Bachman, head of M Science’s TickerTags (a research firm that analyzes the relationship between social media and a company’s performance), said the film’s viewers who have noticed the main character’s sister drinking a yogurt out of a distinctive little bottle, and are talking about it on Twitter.
Dear peter kavinsky, i have a whole pack with no one to share with of yakult a.k.a korean yogurt smoothie.
SKL. ?
— Joys?? #10Yearswith2PM (@joyylet) September 7, 2018
Dear peter kavinsky, i have a whole pack with no one to share with of yakult a.k.a korean yogurt smoothie.
SKL. ?
— Joys?? #10Yearswith2PM (@joyylet) September 7, 2018
fuck u peter kavinsky I can’t even buy my precious yakult now
— s (@kyungfool) September 4, 2018
was gonna buy yakult at the grocery store and there were only two packs left,,, all the blue ones were untouched??? damn someone tell peter kavinsky to STOP
— lolita (@tonifranku) September 2, 2018
i just saw a pack of yakult “on sale” for 2 for $7.00 – this is the peter kavinsky inflation
— moira (@ctrlmoira) September 2, 2018
Other Twitter users pointed out that they’ve been drinking Yakult way before Kavinsky could.
I remember being made fun of for drinking yakult at school and now because of a netflix movie it’s suddenly cool now pffffff
— Aprilyn Cunanan ? (@sheeprilyn) September 4, 2018
These americans are so hyped about Yakult since that netflix film came out, but we asians be chugging this up everyday since childhood wtf
— Bianca Labraque (@biancalabraque) September 5, 2018
to all the yakult I drank before netflix hyped them up and made them cool
— alex reyes (@theALEXX) September 7, 2018
It took a Netflix rom-com to introduce the western society to Yakult while we been chugging this shit since birth
— Aniq (@aniqvqil) September 5, 2018
So does this make me a Yakult hipster? Cos I've been drinking it before it was cool
— Sean ?? (@toohey_sean) September 4, 2018
Although the milk beverage is referred to as a “Korean yogurt smoothie” in the movie, audiences have clearly spotted Yakult’s “distinct red foil top,” Bachman said in a note to clients on Friday.
“While the brand is of Japanese origin and was never mentioned by name in the movie, it is clearly a Yakult bottle, which Twitter users quickly noticed,” he said in the note.
He added that Yakult’s “mention frequency” spiked after the release of the Netflix movie and a majority of the conversations were directly related to interest in the product.
Bloomberg said “shares of the (Yakult) stock, which have dropped about 6 percent this year amid slower sales growth, climbed about 2.6 percent since the movie was released on Aug. 17. The stock closed 1.7 percent higher Monday, the highest since July 31.”
“Given the increasing conversation levels, we believe Yakult is achieving greater brand awareness, which should likely result in higher sales volume,” Bachman added.