Misused English words make effective corporate slogans in Korea, but they don?€™t impress foreigners. When the corporations in question are pursuing global markets, this is a serious problem. Many Koreans are concerned by what the Corea Image Communica…

Almost agree. But you know, two weeks ago we had a dinner with a group of Russian (really, ex-Soviet, I think I was the only ‘Russian’ there in technical sense) workers, and one of them, a woman, a jorunalist-turn-worker-turn-businessperson who has spent six years in Korea, said: “For every one bad story of mistreatment, beatings cheatng etc, there are five good stories of success or at least of normal and enjoyanble life here. These good stories simply remain unreported.” It seems to be true, from my experience.

“it?€™s intersting that not many of you react to statements like ?€?koreans are greedy and hedonistic?€™ but will react to anything i write about
y?€™all. now, why is that?”

It’s because they are so blinded by their hatred of Korea that they refuse to acknowledge any good aspects about it. It’s ironic that the foreigners that get the best treatment in Korea (ie. Westerners) are the loudest in complaining whereas the foreign workers tend to be very respectful of Korea even when they get treated the worst. These expats that you talk about think they know everything about Korea when they don’t know squat. They think that knowing a few Korean acquaintances gives them insight into all of Korean society. Their understanding is shallow at best. They don’t have the depth or wisdom to discern the truths about Korea. All they do is watch from a distance in their expat ghettos complaining about how differently things are done in Korea. They use their own countries as the standard of judgement when those countries have serious problems themselves. Their just not willing to take the time and effort to understand the workings of Korean society. All they do is complain and degrade Korean people. Yet, when they need help, they do not hesitate for a moment to take in the hospitality of Koreans. They do not hesitate to accept discounts or freebies from Koreans especially given to foreigners. If they were truly cultured people, they would make an attempt to adapt to the culture on some level. No, all they want is a Western country with Asian faces. So the issue is not Korea, but the attitude of those expats.

i’m tired of the ajuma and ajussi’s corny, arirang oldie gayo shit.

what i need to see is some old fart spittin rhyme with
kyungsannamdo saatori twang.

like in a slick rap video with a dope beat droppin bombs of a most senior,
conservative, bald headed, ajussi-lookin chaebol mutherfuker with a huge-ass square,
black rimmed, kim jong il style glasses planted on his face, with a massive gold chain
of an earth, wind, and fire eagle icon hung around his neck and a sparklin set of gold
teeth, wearing a tight dark suit, tie, and the company hat worn backwards with the logo
showin, with a big-ass sparklin name belt buckle that spells out HONORARY CHIEF da BIZ
PIMP KIM facing his crew all stiff-like for the company anthem, then the brightness dims,
club lights twirlin’, the speakers be pumpin, the worker bee drones be breaking loose from
the ice bouncing with mad flow, hot ladies be making that ass twurk, and the chairman be
rockin the mike about Big Plans Worldwide Distribution, whare my ulsan dawgs at? whare my
kyungsan dawgs at? whare my taejon dawgs at? whare my suwon dawgs? whare my inchon dawgs at?
da Chairman’s in da house…ah so…yah gae-sheki dool ra, make some mutherfukin noise! the
panoramic pans through a vision of a multitude of robot arms welding shiny steel skeletons
in choreographic synchrony with sparks flying, workers polishing pimp whips to a spit shine
as they be rolling off da line, a fleet of big-ass massive container ships spreading across
the globe, cut to a scene of a showroom with mad pimp whips with a bunch of lovely posing
honeys in tight skimpy outfits caressin the curves, the chairman be lookin mighty pimp
himself, strutting onto da floor flanked by two fine-ass honeys, one on each arm, plump
cuban cigar clenched between teeth, swigging a bottle of hennity xo, reaches down and grabs
them honeys asses saying ‘who’s your daddy?’, all paternalistic and shit. ‘Fifty mutherfukin
years ago, i didnt even have a can to piss in. look at me now, not bad for a dirt-poor
sangnomae-sheki from the shi-gool. now all you punk-ass bitches out there, talkin shit, yeah
all you motherfuckers out there who be fuckin with the motherland, that’s right, uh-huh, let
me show you some mi-guk shit that i picked up over there, do ya understand this?

ma little friend

Some of the presentations were hilarious.

One group lectured us o…

In so many cases I tend to just give the benefit of the doubt to the good intentions of the marketing department and the final result to people who have no busniess throwing in their two cents, or copy revisions as the case may be. That’s not really a Korea-specific managerial problem, though. From the conceptual, creative, production end of things (which I’m familiar with from work I did back Stateside) every step of the way is usually a Hurculean effort to prevent the entire project from, well, being a “pleasure island full of treasure.”

For every horrific piece of advertising there are always several decent ones out there. I’m particularly fond of some of the Home Theater television pieces. And there’s that classic one with the models who fall through the guy’s ceiling when he prods it with the hat-rack. Eventually, I believe, something will be produced that’s better than ‘marginal’ and it will make it through. In the meantime, don’t forget to have a Rice Day.

It must be a lie. The pure victims of Korea are to blame for nothing.

I work off and on doing ad work for one of the chaebols (it sounds more impressive than it is). Somewhere in the 90’s they commisioned a NY firm to give a report on their brand image. One thing they took to heart (maybe the only) from the report was to focus on certian sporting events.

Now every directive I get from them is to make the ad more “sporty” no matter how far away they get from the actual product. This can lead to some rather akward juxitipoitions. The funnier thing in a way is all the “hate” mail they get from their forgien offices (staffed by natives) basicaly asking “WHAT THE HELL??? WHO WROTE THIS???” Apparently this is my fault since I wrote it, not becuse they insist on putting things in that are totaly inapropreate.

Now, some might debate me about whether this kind of thing hurts the image of Korea abroad, but I have heard this same story, Chinese factories, Korean owners, sweatshops, stonewalling, injuries, deaths, again and again, and I think that its a scandal.

I am getting the impression that Korean-owned factories in China often have serious problems - much more than China’s average. (which is not very good..but slowly improving, I suspect, as average wages rise.)

But the stories coming out of these places are horrifying..

If thats true, no amount of money spent on PR will obscure the real issue.. that of massive greed causing deaths and ruined lives..

Profits are NOT more important than human lives…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/pro.....139401.stm

Perhaps because they actually LIVE here and you don’t, nulji?