The chief of a presidential panel on enhancing the national image proposed yesterday the national slogans, "Dynamic Korea" and "Korea Sparkling," be replaced by something more symbolic of the nation's "miraculous" technological advancement. "The national brand is something that elevates the national character. It is to change Korea's negative image," said Euh Yoon-dae, chairman of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, during his lecture celebrating the first anniversary of a group of 56 Grand National Party lawmakers.
"The meaning of 'Dynamic' itself is positive, but it should be changed to something that expresses the country's technological power such as IT powerhouse."
"Korea Sparkling" is completely ricetarded. It makes no sense at all, and pairing it with the AquaFresh logo doesn't help. I'm not sure their suggestion "Miraculous Korea" is much better than the fake one I made up, "Visit Korea: No, the other one."
He said "Miraculous Korea" could be one of the suggestions to replace Dynamic Korea.
Euh cited North Korean issues, Korean politics, street demonstrations and unkindness as factors that have added to the negative national image.
"One of the wrong promotional efforts is to take foreigners to the demilitarized zone. When they are back to their countries, they would get only reminded that the South and the North are in a standoff," he said.
You can peddle hanbok, kimchi, and semiconductors all day long, but trying to convince foreigners---all six billion of them---that Korea is not at war is neither reasonable nor appropriate, and moreover it's insulting to so blatantly try and gloss over negative perceptions of the country that were developed fair and square. People don't seem to realize that the heavy-handed way with which Korea is "branded" by policymakers and PR people has a lot to do with the brand.
34 comments:
Brian,
Yes and no.
You don't pretend that Korea is not split, but you don't pump that image up - it's a non-seller. Might as well use M*A*S*H in your commercials.
That would be like Hawaii focusing on the fact it rains alot and the natives are pretty down on whites. Oh yeah, Hawaii is wildly expensive - not quite Tokyo expensive, but bad. For a tourism department to ignore that kind of thing is SOP. EVERY country tries to gloss over negative perceptions of the country that were developed fair and square and it is disingenuous to blame Korea for doing what every country does.
With that said, Korea also does itself a disservice with the utterly lame (and often meaningless in English) slogans it comes up with.
"Miraculous" is marginally better than the toothpaste-like "Sparkling" but it still isn't that great. And if they replace it (again) next year, then it all means nothing.
I was pleased when I saw the redo of the "Sparkling" widget, as it seemed that KTO had looked to actual foreigners for input.
That's good.
But simple marketing also counsels that you don't change your freaking slogan every 1.5 years.
aah.. good with bad, I suppose...
If they try to "sell" the country the same way merchants sell in Namdaemun Market, they'll fail.
Indeed, anything they come out with in English has an excellent chance of being terrible.
I also don't think the DMZ shouldn't be a tourist attraction, and that's the primary reason I've never visited.
Charles, did they roll out the new widget? I didn't get the spam message about the first one, and haven't checked back to see if the new one is any less insulting.
Admittedly I'm ignorant on this point, but do other countries so aggressively market and brand themselves like Korea? I get that Korea has a chip on its shoulder, but are other countries as determined? I think Korea's a perfectly fine place---maybe not a "must visit," but certainly many people interested in Asia, in K-pop and -dramas would want to visit---though when it gets branded as "Hub of Asia" or when Gwangju is the "Hub City of Asian Culture" of course it comes off for the worse.
Agreed, they need to pick a slogan---pick a good one---and stick to it, not change it every year.
How about:
"Korea -- Land of Superslogans"?
Or:
"Korea -- Please Just Spend Your Money Here and Don't Stay Too Long"?
Or:
"The Big Kimchi -- It's Not as Bad as It Looks or Smells"?
Or, my personal favorite:
"Korea -- The Land of Mourning Calm"?
LOL!
King Baeksu's slogans rock reality.
Why they will never be used.
Brian - yeah, the new widget came out at the same time the blog campaign (which I also think is brilliant by Korean international advertising standards) came out. There are also some incredibly dull and meaningless banners. But one thing at a time. ;-)
And, yeah, as a guy who was a marketing director before I came to Korea (this may be why I like Korea so much?), all countries trying to position themselves as tourist destinations spend big domestic money trying to capture the overseas tourist dollar.
The difference is that other countries actually pay attention, by which I mean survey, their potential customers. What happened with the widget gives me slight hope the KTO is now paying some external attention.
Korea substantially underperforms what it should do in terms of tourism. Even given the flaws Korea has as a tourist destination (and anyone who wants can check me out at http.www.spunangel.com/Morningcalm.html or email me at ccmontgom at ratpunk.com if they want chapter and verse on this) it does not do well.
Also - your point about Korean local overstatement is key on - the ""Hub City of Asian Culture" bullshit is bullshit and counterproductive. I'd also say it means nothing.
In tourism theory there is "organic" image and "induced" image. Korea's organic(sort of meaning "existing") image is negligible and its attempts to induce an image are often so lame they backfire.
But I love Gwangju as my Korean "godparents" live there. ;-)
Finally, I must express my outrage that your word verification for my post was"
outme
what if my mother were watching?
you bastard!
Nicely put, Mr. Montgomery.
Let me add:
Branding is not only about tourism. I don't think the KTA has tourism in its mind. Selling products is. So Koreans sell cars, semiconductors, cell phones, LED TVs... Well it is clear what they mean with an IT powerhouse.
The discussion should be about what Korea wants to sell and HOW.
That was my point.
Once upon a time a few months ago, I devoted a good twenty minutes or so to coming up with a better slogan than 'Korea - Sparkling', and what follows is the fruit of that labour:
Korea - The Best Country in the World by a Significant Margin
Korea - Middle Earth Food and Third World Manners
Korea - The Most Traditional Country Ever
Korea - Where Westerners Come to Be Glowered at by Nasty Old Cunts on the Subway
Korea - Don't Like Our Traditions? No Problem! We'll Invent Some More!
Korea - Fuck, You Should Have Seen the Place When We Had The Olympics!
Korea - Just Like Japan, But Short One Chromosome
Korea - Welcome! ...When Did You Say You Were Leaving?
Korea - That Smell on the Subway Is Rarefied Deliciousness
Korea - the Country That Inspired Vivaldi to Write 'The Four Seasons'
Korea - A Division of Samsung Inc.
Korea - Come Make Your Well-Delineated Individual Desires Hostage to Our Nebulous Groupthink!
Korea - Official World Leader in Spurious World Leadership Claims
Korea - Middle Child Syndrome on a National Scale
Korea - Home to the Kimchigasm
Korea - A Time Capsule For The Kind of Things That Would Never Be Considered Worth Putting in a Time Capsule
Korea - Vivid, Vivacious, Fresh, Fun, and Really Really Sizzling
Korea - We'll Ruin Your Holiday and Blame the US
Korea - Don't Miss the Public Spousal Discipline Display!
Korea - Where the Streets Are Paved with Vomit and Mucus
Korea - China's Car-Park-In-Waiting
Korea - A Country Designed on the Default Setting
Korea - Where Every Year is 1984
Korea - Where Our Passionate Nationalism Routs Our Personal Dignity
Korea - Cosmopolitophobia
Korea - Allow Us To Point Out Your Trifling Physical Deficiencies
Korea - Thank You For Not Discussing the Outside World
Korea - The No-Name Brand Alternative to Japan
Korea - You Know, You're Not So Fantastic Yourself
Korea - Adding Tedium, Frustration and Confusion to the Conduct of Your Daily Business
Korea - Positively Celebrating Difference: Our Own, to You
Korea - 'Culture' in the Most Charitable Sense of the Term
Korea - Come and See Why Peasantries Were So Often Slaughtered
Korea - Try and Think of Us Like You Would 'Outsider' Art
And one or two more, with the earnest disclaimer that the above and below were written in the spirit of satire and do not necessarily reflect my genuine feelings on the issue. When the government exhibits such clueless hubris, how can one resist?
Korea - Lending precious perspective to the failings of the modern world
Korea - With pride like this, you'd be a fool to miss the fall!
Korea - Deconstructing the dinner/compost dyad
Korea - The Belgium of the East
Korea - Spot the genuine graduate and win a cash prize!
Korea - Be the envy of your very distant ancestors!
Korea - How will you know that you absolutely hate it if you've never even been?
Korea - Now nearly 30 years without a massacre of student protesters!
Korea - If you were a country, it'd visit you!
Stevie Bee,
Good job on most but I take offense at this one:
"Korea - The Belgium of the East"
Since when have the Koreans ever reached the heights of brewing art that can produce at least a Stella Artois, not to mention Trappist Ales?
Oh man..
let's not get started on Korean beer (or worse, wine) or I will lose that "sparkling" feeling I have this morning.
;-)
Korea: When the quarantine stops, the fun begins!
Korea - You Know, You're Not So Fantastic Yourself
So many of those were funny, but for some reason this one made me LOL.
Ooh, ooh, I've got one:
Korea! Come Drown Your Sorrows with Us
- particularly apt this monsoon season
Korea -- We Don't Give a Fuck What You Think about Our Goddamn Slogans!
In truth, we all know that the slogan that most accurately represents the "Korean spirit," and the one that Koreans most often use among themselves, is also the most obvious one: "Korea Fighting!"
For better or worse, that is the Korean "national brand" in a nutshell.
Korea — You'll enjoy it as long as you stay away from the WAAAAAAHgugins. ;)
And I have to counter Charles Montgomery's snickers about the Aloha State:
Honolulu — Highest walking-around-in-a-bikini ratio of any major American city
Kushibo
LOL.. I'm not smacking on Hawaii - I liked it when I visited. More saying they did a brilliant job in framing which aspects of reality went into image.
Korea, except to a veeeeeeery small minority, has no image at all. Which actually makes it fertile ground, if they ever got their shite together, for tourism growth.
There would also be, to say the least, some issues to deal with on the ground here, but I still think Korea is underperforming it's potential.
Hawaii — Roads like America, Drivers like Asia
Charles, I would only amend one thing you wrote:
Korea, except to a veeeeeeery small minority of people outside East Asia, has no image at all.
In fact, many people in countries like Japan, Taiwan, China, etc., have an image of Korea, even if it is a still-forming image.
I was in Thailand in February and was surprised to learn that many Thais are really keen to come to Korea as students. They really look up to the place, on account of the soaps and awful pop music. Just goes to show - no matter how basic your product, there's bound to be a buyer somewhere.
It's not just a matter of finding someone somewhere out there who likes it: the stuff so many Anglophones mock is hugely popular in many parts of East Asia, from Japan to China and down into Southeast Asia.
Korean pop music and especially Korean soaps are hugely popular in Korea as well.
kushibo, come off the waaaahgookin crap. I agree with you that some foreigners are hypersensitive, think too highly of themselves, and are too eager to criticize all things Korean . . . but if Korea's gonna throw around ill-conceived English slogans, of course we're going to have some fun with it.
Kushibo
That's a fair enough change. I'm thinking all English-centric at the moment as I'm presenting a conference paper on this topic in August (in cosmoplitan Daejeon!).
Sensitive is right! ;)
Sorry if I was unclear. First, I'm not saying that people poking fun at the slogans are WAAAAAHgugin. Second, I'm not saying all oégugin are WAAAAAHgugin. That subset of oégugin are those for whom whining about how horrible life is in Korea for them and/or how badly they are treated is a major part of their existence in the ROK.
What I was saying (and I thought this part, at least, was clear) is that if you avoid those people, you might actually enjoy your stay.
Yikes!
Korean pop music and especially Korean soaps are hugely popular in Korea as well.
I meant in Hawaii!
I must be high on Maui Wowee.
And I retract the "sensitive is right" comment. I actually didn't mean to right that. Too mean-spirited, even with the winky.
Stevie Bee, while your list of slogans is certainly humourous, a poster over at the Marmot has you beat with one entry:
Korea -- Cockblocking Capital of the World.
Then again, it only takes one moron on youtube to undo a lot of "branding."
My new favorite video, douche-hatted hagwon dude explains why Korea has no Nobel Prizes:
right here on morningcalm
chock-full of the silly!
New slogan from Dokdo Is Ours:
http://dokdoisours.blogspot.com/2009/07/proposed-replacement-slogans-for-korea.html
* South Korea: Different from North Korea!
* South Korea: Land of Fruit-Vendors and Bat-shit Politicians
* South Korea: Can You Spot the Nork Spy?
* Korea: We Don't Read Our English T-Shirts Before We Buy Them...but You Can!
* South Korea: Schedule An Extra 7 Days for Quarantine!
* South Korea: Seriously, We DON'T all Look The Same. Come and See.
* South Korea: We'll Only Hate You If You Teach English
* The Korea Formerly Known As Sparkling!
* Korea: ________ (adjective)! We are very ______ (adjective)! Come ______(verb) in our ________ (place name)! Our ________ is spicy.
* Come to South Korea, so We Don't Have To Travel Abroad to Form Prejudices About People from Your Country!
* South Korea: More Polite Than China!
* Korea: HELLO! HELLO! HELLO! WHERE ARE YOU FROM? I'M SORRY I DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH!
* South Korea: Cleaner than Calcutta!
* Korea: Hub of Self-Aggrandizing Pronouncements
* South Korea: Cheaper than Japan, and Better at Women's Golf!
* Korea: Go Talk To The Foreigner, Young-mi!
* South Korea: No Longer a War-Torn Shithole!
* Do You Know Park Jisung?
* South Korea: Bigger Than Koreatown LA!
* Do You Know Korea?
* Korea Virus!
* Korea: Pushiest Christians in the World!
* Korea: Somebody Once Called Us The Polite Country To The East, And We've Been Holding Onto that For A While
* Korea: We Celebrate Every Special Occasion With Hot Girls In Short Skirts!
Korea - 50 million people, 15 personalities!
Korea - A Chilling Vision of What Life Will Be Like When Christians Take Over the Planet
Korea - Love Beckham, Hate You.
Korea - Striving Pitifully for Significance
Korea - ARBEIT MACHT FREI
Korea - Taking the Guesswork out of Human Interaction
Korea - My Manager Told Me To Tell You That You Have To Come
Korea - Exactly What's Wrong With Social Conservatism
Korea - Thousands of Illiterate and Desperately Poor Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese Peasants Can't Be Wrong!
Korea - Experience Life In Japan's Slipstream!
Korea - Opening 2010: The Korean Centre for Tourist Re-Education
Korea - Korean Food Is Very Delicious! (Honestly, say it often enough and eventually you'll believe it too!)
Korea - The More Often You Visit, The More Often You Get To Leave!
Korea: So good we decided to make two.
Korea - "I liked it so much, I decided to buy the country!" (Mr Lee M-B, businessman, Seoul)
I stumbled back on this old post from a year ago while looking for something else, but I took the time to re-read some of the comments. Stevie Bee's list at the end had me cracking a smile several times.
Thanks for the revisit, kushibo.
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