2014 Sochi Olympics has come to the end today. I would like to share an interesting incident happened in Korea with a second-hand advertising. During the period of Olympics, many companies use athletes in their marketing campaign to take an advantage of Olympics.
In this particular advertisement, the Korean energy company, E1, used Yuna Kim in their television commercial to draw public’s attention. I could not find a commercial with an English subtitle but the basic intention was to support Yuna by saying that whole country is supporting her. However, they expressed the message in a wrong way that people who watched this commercial thought that it gives too much pressure to Yuna.
The commercial starts by telling Yuna that “You are not Yuna Kim.” “You are Korea when you are performing for 4 minutes and 8 seconds.” “You are the most beautiful Korea in the world.” “You are the Republic of Korea.” “Korea supports Korea”.
After seeing the ad, many people blamed the company for delivering such a nationalistic message and putting a huge pressure on an athlete preparing for a big game. In my opinion, this advertisement might have worked if it was 10 to 15 years ago. Back then, Korean culture was very nationalistic and demanded full dedication from people who represent the nation in such a big event. However, as more western cultures influence the country, the way people think is also starting to change.