[New Wave] The True Lesson of the Pokemon Bread Craze

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I only realized that the Pok?mon Bread craze, which I thought would fizzle out early in the year, is still ongoing when I saw the “Sold Out” notice at the entrance of a local convenience store. As is well known, it’s not the bread itself but the randomly included Pok?mon stickers called Ttibu Ttibu Seals that are selling out daily. In some cases, rare stickers have even sparked a bizarre phenomenon where they are traded at prices dozens of times higher than the bread’s cost.

Just because the stickers inside are traded at high prices doesn’t mean the bread’s taste or nutritional value is proportional. Ultimately, the consumption is not of the bread but of the meaning or symbolism the stickers carry. For the generation around their 30s with economic power, the stickers serve as a medium to summon forgotten childhood memories. For elementary school students who don’t want to lose in peer competition, the stickers act as a status symbol showing how impressive they are. For middle-aged people, the “I heard this bread is so popular these days?” certification subtly flaunts that they still possess a youthful sensibility.

Jean Baudrillard, author of The Consumer Society, classified the value attributes of objects into four types: exchange value, use value, symbolic exchange value, and sign value. First, the exchange value, which appears in transactions, corresponds to the bread price of 1,500 won. Second, the use value refers to the utility of how tasty or filling the bread is when eaten. Third, the symbolic exchange value means the value as a symbol showing how much a parent loves their child when gifting the sticker-bearing bread. Lastly, the sign value is consumption aimed at showing what kind of person I am. In this context, the Pok?mon Bread craze is not much different from the psychology of consuming luxury goods. Perhaps that’s why stores holding limited Pok?mon Bread sales events have lines as long as those for department store openings.

The implications of the Pok?mon Bread craze can be summarized in two main points. First, the added value varies greatly depending on what kind of value the same product is sold for. If the bread had been sold solely for its use value as food to satisfy hunger, it would have been difficult to differentiate it from other breads. There would have been no social issue, and the manufacturer’s stock price would have remained flat. This added value is purely generated by sign value. Such phenomena are commonly observed in societies that have overcome scarcity. Items like McDonald’s Happy Meal sets or Starbucks merchandise were precursors to the Pok?mon Bread craze. When food focuses on content power that fills the heart beyond simply filling the stomach, sign value emerges and can be maximized.

Second, sign value is a special phenomenon that appears only among those who share the worldview behind it. For those who have never been enthusiastic about Pok?mon, buying bread just to collect seemingly insignificant and useless stickers looks foolish. When the bread with Pok?mon stickers first came out 16 years ago, media criticized it for encouraging children’s gambling tendencies or damaging their innocence. While the concern for young children and teenagers is understandable, the one-sided regulation that disregards their feelings proved unnecessary, as clearly shown by this craze.

This phenomenon is by no means limited to Pok?mon. Online content such as games and videos have experienced or are still experiencing similar phenomena. Trying to regulate by judging only use value and setting limits cannot be a solution. Instead, focusing on sign value is the shortcut to creating greater value as well as intergenerational integration. This is the true lesson of the Pok?mon Bread craze, which I firmly believe.

Jangju Lee, author of How to Communicate with My Child from the Gaming Generation and Director of Irak Digital Culture Research Institute

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