The Pokémon Bread craze

These days there is a big phenomenon going around all over Korea. Which is the “Pokémon Bread” craze. It has become a hot topic since February of this year. Suddenly, everybody wants a piece of delicious bread and the valuable prize inside of it. So, what is ‘Pokémon Bread’? And why is it so famous suddenly?

Pokémon bread has existed since 1999. However, at that time, Pokémon bread was not as rare as it is right now. Also, it had over 400 kinds of stickers available. These days, there are only 11 kinds of Pokémon bread with 159 collectable Pokémon stickers. In addition to that, it has become a rare commodity as it is very hard to find because of its limited quantity. I think it has become rare because the company wants to make their products rare and more expensive, thus so many parents like my own do not encourage their students to buy Pokémon bread.

You may ask yourself, who buys Pokémon bread? And why? The people who buy it are children and adults. However, their reasons for buying Pokémon bread are totally opposites most of the time. First of all, adults buy Pokémon bread for money mostly. How could someone possibly earn money from such a thing? Inside the bread, there is a sticker and some of those stickers are over 10,000won. If we collect all of the stickers and finish the collection, they can be sold for over 750,000won. That much money with only 159 stickers is a lot. On the other hand, children buy them just to have fun with friends and exchange stickers with each other. It has become a new hobby for many children. Even I joined the trend and I own more than 40 stickers so far.

Pokemon bread can either help kids make new friends or break friendships. Friendship can be so delicate that it could break over a piece of paper with a picture of a pokemon. For example, there is a friend A and friend B; Both of them were close friends but friend A might get jealous over his friend's large collection and vice versa. Or even worse, one of them can steal some of each other's precious collectables. Because of that event, a big fight might break out between the two and cause their friendship to get ruined. Nevertheless, it can turn two strangers into best friends simply by agreeing to exchange stickers and building their collections together. Thus, new friendships could flourish and be built on a strong yet interesting bond.

In my final analysis, I believe that the pokemon bread craze is another trend that will eventually disappear. There are already many assumptions about this product becoming more available very soon which could result in it being normalized and less wanted.