Hasn't been officially announced yet, according to the tweet, but it does appear on some of the KTO pages. It's on the splash page, the two English pages, the German page, the Russian page, and the Arabic page. Some of the others still have "Korea Sparkling" or have a message in a language I can't read. This Facebook thread shows the decision was down to "Korea, Be Inspired" and "Korea Inspiring." It's tricky to guess where to put the comma, because the logo doesn't have any punctuation. The only other time I've seen it was in this 한국일보 article, and that gave it a comma, though I wonder if it'd be better with a colon or a period. That way you're not telling Korea what to do.
South Korea, where there's a new tourism slogan every six days, announced in July that it was going to discontinue two of its previous slogans, "Korea Sparkling" and "Dynamic Korea," and offered up the alternative "Miraculous Korea." "Miraculous Korea" was unveiled the other day on a website by the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, KoreaBrand.net (review by Chris in South Korea here). George from Ask the Expat says "it's like an Internet version of Arirang."
In July we came up with a pretty good list of slogans for Korea, and I'm disappointed to see they haven't made the cut. I guess we'll have to wait until next week. Here's my favorite, from Stevie Bee:
Korea - The Most Traditional Country Ever
I think you could also go with "Korea - My Manager Told Me To Tell You That You Have To Come." The best one I've come up with was "Korea: So good we decided to make two," but "Korea: No, the other one" would be a smart choice, too.
We're four weeks into the KTO's three-year Visit Korea Year *cough* campaign.
34 comments:
There are so many possible funny slogans, but I think they've found something that at least isn't completely ricetarded. I've honestly found Korea to be somewhat uninspiring, but hey, that's advertising. "Sparkling" was a blatant lie, but "Inspiring" is a nice exaggeration.
I always thought they should have gone with, "Korea: The Asseoul of Asia."
Korea, Do You Know?
Korea. Englished For You.
Korea is Traditional Korean Country.
Korea, Is The Drinking!
Korea, hmm, Maybe You Don't Know It?
Korea. 꺼져 Welcoming!
Punctuation makes all the difference here. If it were "Korea. Be inspired." or "Korea-- Be Inspired" or even "Korea: Be Inspired", that would all be fine.
But instead, it seems it's going to be "Korea, be inspired" (with a comma). The same structure as something like "Jenny, sit down" or "Eddie, be quiet" (expressions that many readers of this blog will no doubt find familiar).
Thus, using the comma makes "Korea, be inspired" sound more like an exasperated plea to Korea to just get some f**king inspiration already rather than promising awe to potential tourists.
Oh... and apparently it's actually "KOREATBRAND.NET" (with a "T") at least for the first splash page.
How about..."Korea! Not as Weird as You Think!"
Seriously, do you ever get the impression that they are just floundering around trying to see what sticks without any thought or plan whatsoever?
Dynamic Korea I thought was a good slogan. Korea. Be !nspired with the I as a ! "bang". In programming a ! before something means "not". If x != y then...
A bit close to Sapporo/Hokkadio's motto "Boys, Be ambitious"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Clark
I think they should have stuck with Dynamic Korea. They keep trying to push the hanbok/palaces/temples blah blah culture. No one goes to HK, Tokyo, or Shanghai for that.
PW, you're probably right that they don't go to TKO, SHA, or HKG for the temples... but they do for Beijing and Kyoto.
I think the temples and palaces are somewhat of a selling point for Korea--I keep thinking that Korea's marketing should focus on things that make Korea "Korean"-- its mountains, cuisine, traditional architecture and arts/music/clothing, etc. For anything else, Seoul can't compete. Gambling? Vegas/Macau. Impressive tech suff? Tokyo. Fine dining? New York/Paris. Recreation? New Zealand.
Korea One Shot!!!
Douglas wrote: "Seriously, do you ever get the impression that they are just floundering around trying to see what sticks without any thought or plan whatsoever?"
I'm quite certain that's precisely what they're doing. Normally, advertising campaigns are based on a great deal of research into what appeals to the target audience -- in this case, foreign tourists. But, knowing what I know about Korea, I'd be utterly amazed if the KTO were actually doing that. And without any reliable insight into what will actually attract tourists, any advertising campaign really is just a shot in the dark.
But I'm still convinced that the true target audience for KTO's advertising campaigns -- indeed, for all of Korea's attempts at "national branding" -- is not foreign tourists, but the Korean public. Maybe their next slogan should be, "Korea: We Could Attract Tourists If We Wanted To."
I think "Korea: No, the other one" could actually work.
I'm amazed they haven't tried this one yet:
"Korea: You Need To Understand Our Culture"
On this Dave's thread a poster put forth the recommendation, taken from somewhere else, of "Korea. Red Hot." It refers to not only the food but the pace of everything. I like it. Says the poster:
***
When I hear that, it conjures up how I really feel about Korea - the good and the bad - much more so than all that silly "official" crap. I always think Koreans would be much better received if they sold themselves as, "We're spicy, baby!" Instead, I get this steady stream of people telling me, "We are the best, kindest, most polite people in world!" We all know that's just a silly lie.
***
Korea, Swallow
If you want temples, you think kyoto. If you want palaces, you think Beijing. Seoul has 'em, sure, but they're second run compared to the ur-versions.
Korea just needs to man up and realize it's always going to be the Chicago of Asia. It's great for travelers closer to home. It's great if you have to go there on biz. But for travelers 10 hours away by plane, if you're planning your one shot Asian adventure, not to be repeated for a decade or more, Korea will be second best for most.
Korea can leverage its "off the beaten path but the path is paved and it's lined with starbucks and mcdonalds" angle. I don't go to Tokyo. I visit Sapporo. I don't go to Thailand, I go to Korea. I don't go to New York, I go to Chicago. I don't go to Vancouver, I go to Halifax. There's a niche of travelers that like the hidden gems, like to go in the direction opposite the crowd is going and Korea offers something there, with the comforts of home.
"I don't go to Vancouver, I go to Halifax."
Listen, Scotland. Colon. Semi-colon. Dead-space. Air. Sound of birds. While your comparisons of cities that lie within somewhat comparable regions is incisive and I certainly bear no ill will toward the citizens of Halifax (yet,) I must ask a question. As follows. Punctuation mark denoting such. Why compare cities that are approximately 9 billion miles apart purely because they are both Canadian and both happen to be (un)lucky enough to die by a ditch we call the ocean? You might as well say, "I don't go to Tuscaloosa, I go to Zagreb" purely because both are unpronounceable blights on society. Please include cash with your response.
I also like the
"Korea, Red Hot" which came up during a period I was actually mocking up fake newspaper ads. I think I've also seen it suggested in the past here on Brian's site, as well as on Marmot's. I can't be arsed to google it.
Puffin watch is partly correct -- you can find something better if you take Korea apart piece by piece. But surely the KTO (and Korean society) are massively underperforming right now. Gyeongju is unknown; the belabor the wrong foods overseas (Kimchi will NOT convert the white heathen); and as my blog Morning Calm to some extent attempts to show, they even send the wrong literature out into the world.
All of which comes back to one basic point that Douglas &Peter make. Korea really never looks at what the potential market might want. Instead, they look internally, talk amongst themselves, swing half-heartedly (but often!) and miss...
Korea: Twice the pride, half the dignity.
Here is how the tourists break down:
Chinese are coming because it is cheap and close to visit.
Japanese are coming for the shopping.
I have never heard of any Americans/Canadians/Europeans who come to Korea as just tourists. They come to visit someone who lives in Korea. I think you would have to be stupid to decide to travel to Korea as a tourist. It would be a seriously suck ass holiday.
LOL
1994.. I checked out your blog..
there are haters for every country...
That's right, Charles. But there are way toooo many for Korea than for any other country. Why do you think this is?
Isn't 1994 Uncle Kev from Dave's?
I am not Kev.
Yes you are.
We're not following that tangent. Stay on topic.
You have to know yourself first before you can say who you are to others.
How about these for advertising slogans?
"Korea: we have four seasons and you don't"
"Korea: we can eat spicy food and you can't"
"Korea: our alphabet is better than yours"
Seriously, though, they could do a lot worse than "Korea: be inspired", providing always that they punctuate it properly.
Korea: We Love It So You Don't Have To.
Korea: At Least You Don't Have to Live Here.
Korea: A Theme Park for the Drunk.
Korea: Deliciously Traditional and Traditionally Delicious!
Korea: Validate Us Or We Swear to Fucking God We'll Get a Nuke.
Korea: Be Inspired to Do Better Research for your Next Holiday.
I told you yesterday we're not following that tangent, so stop following that tangent.
Stay on topic.
The genius of the "Korea Is Best" site is that it states clearly what Korea's official boosters wish they could say, but are just intelligent enough to know that they can't actually use as a tourist slogan or "national brand" because it would obviously turn off too many outsiders, so they have to resort to a constantly changing series of half-baked euphemisms for this basic core belief such as "The Hub of Asia" and "Soul of Asia" and "Korea, Sparkling" and "Miraculous Korea," ad infinitum.
They should just stop fucking around and go with "Korea Is Best." At least a lot people would respect them for having the gonads to say what they actually mean, and screw the outside world if they don't like it.
Come to think of it, isn't that what North Korea has been doing for quite some time now?
the chicago of asia (as a former chitownite) is right, but without the culture. A hub means a place you can pass through or distribute, right? Well, some people are passing through, but they also go through Japan.
I think building Korea up as charming maybe better, but the things that were charming (for me, the street vendors) are largely gone. Then, you got to make the people a bit more sparkling.
i just say, they pay me enough for teaching, which I came to do, as long as they try to kill me, im all good. not my country, you know?
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