'Descendants of PPL'

"Descendents of the Sun" / Screen captures from KBS

By Bahk Eun-ji

Kissing your girlfriend while behind the wheel?

It sounds like mission impossible. But not for the heroes of “Descendants of the Sun.”

The megahit KBS drama is drawing criticism from netizens for excessive product placement (PPL) advertisements after airing its 13th episode Wednesday.

In the latest episode, lead character Seo Dae-young (Jin Goo), while driving his Yoon Myung-joo (Kim Ji-won) home in a Hyundai Motor luxury Genesis sedan, takes his hands off the steering wheel completely to embrace and kiss her.

In the scene that ran several minutes, the sedan was driving autonomously while the two were kissing each other.

The kissing scene was supposed to be romantic, but it looked quite dangerous in the eyes of most viewers.

Many netizens are posting on various websites against what they say are excessive product placement ads in the show.

They say they felt uncomfortable with the scene that seemed too dangerous.

“Considering the production cost of the drama was 13 billion won, the drama has to put some advertisements in, but this one went too far,” said a netizen with the ID phb0.

On top of the vehicle ad, kitchenware, sandwiches, a franchise cafe, almonds and a chocolate bar appeared in the same episode as product placement.