[Translation] [2013] ayu loses sales record to AKB48 (Article)

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Originally Posted by channy

The marketing around Ayu during her peak had been utter aggressive. Commercials for countless consumer products (cosmetics, junkfood, electronics), tv commercials for every single single/album release, advertisements in cities everywhere, promotional appearances in nearly every Japanese tv show on an almost daily basis (plus ayu ready?), her face on every single teen magazine.

Ayu is virtually the epitome of an industrially branded, constructed and hyped advertising figure and the key of that project was never limited to solely produce and sell music but also to create a face that could effectively convey the product messages of other companies in the business. It's not really about music after all.

How can we compare this (the yesterday) to today's AKB48 in some way?