The Grand Narrative

(Update 6th December: When I heard that Lee Hyori had signed an advertising contract with Doosan Soju, I never expected ads like this!)

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about the way Korean women are portrayed in soju advertisements here, curious as to why the cheap national paint-stripper otherwise known as “soju” was usually advertised with such innocent and virginal images of women, like this one of Kim Ah-joong’s above. But some of the ads I looked at were more of the “drink this and this gorgeous girl will want to have sex with you” type, and I’ve personally noticed that restaurants in university districts in particular will have much more of these. From an…ahem…feminist perspective, I think the change is great: sure, women’s bodies are still being objectified, but 5 mins looking at the rest of the blog will demonstrate that I don’t have too much of a problem with that, and like I just explained in my last post, if Korean society expects women to remain virgins until they’re married, but not men, then that begs the question of whom exactly the men are supposed to have sex with. Ergo, it’s not the reality at all, unmarried Korean women like having sex too (or so I’ve heard), so my point here is that surely virtually any acknowledgement of that in the Korean media is a step in the right direction?

Bearing all that in mind, while Lee Hyori wouldn’t be the least virginal and innocent female “talent” in the Korean public imagination, she’d be up there (if in doubt look below, and if you’re still not entirely convinced, here and here too). So, is this a watershed in Korean feminism, or nothing more than a great excuse to put up some more pictures of Lee Hyori on the blog? Having made my preconceptions and biases clear, let me translate the article comparing the two ad campaigns and see:

이효리 vs 김아중, 소주대전 ‘후끈’

Lee Hyori vs Kim Ah-Joong: An Intense Rivalry

소주 브랜드 ‘참이슬’과 ‘처음처럼’으로 맞붙고 있는 진로와 두산의 소주대전이 미녀 광고모델전으로 번지고 있다.

Jinro’s “Chamisul” soju’s intense rivalry with Doosan’s new variety “Like the first time” is spreading to the models and stars used in advertisements.

두산 주류(대표 한기선)는 소주 브랜드인 ‘처음처럼’의 3대 모델로 ‘이효리’를 기용했다고 20일 밝혔다. 계약기간은 6개월이다. 이효리는 앞으로 처음처럼의 모델로 주요 광고와 프로모션에 활동을 전개하게 된다.

On the 20th of this month, Doosan’s representative Han Gi-seon announced that Lee Hyori had signed a contract to appear in Doosan advertisements, promotions and other activies for the next 6 months, the third high-profile star to do so for the company.

지난해 처음처럼 출시이후 소주시장 내 돌풍을 일으켰던 두산주류는 1대 ‘이영아’, 2대 ‘구혜선’에 이어 이번에 ‘이효리’를 모델로 선정해 내년 마케팅 활동에 박차를 가할 예정이다.

After “Like the first time” was suddenly introduced onto the soju market last year, Doosan first signed a similar contract with Lee Yeong-ae and then Gu Hye-seon. This third contract with Lee Hyori will further accelerate this new trend of using high-profile stars in soju marketing campaigns.

두산주류는 이번 광고계약으로 최고의 인기를 구가하고 있는 이효리를 활용해 처음처럼의 부드러움을 소비자들에게 각인시킨다는 전략이다.

Through this contract with Lee Hyori, the most popular star in Korea, Doosan wants to present a softer image to consumers while continuing its new star-based adverstisment strategy. 

두산 관계자는 “최고의 주가를 올리고 있는 이효리를 모델로 기용해 처음처럼의 부드러운 맛뿐만 아니라 활기차면서도 밝은 이미지로 젊은 층은 물론 폭넓은 연령대의 소비자들에게 좋은 반응을 얻을 것으로 기대한다”고 말했다.

According to interested parties, this news of the new contract with Lee Hyori has “pushed Doosan stock prices to new highs, and through her ad campaigns Doosan aims not only to show that ‘Like the first time’  has a soft mellow taste (!?!!?- James) but expects that they will also help to present a fresh, bright image to young consumers.”

이에 앞서 진로는 지난 9월 ‘참이슬 후레쉬’의 광고모델로 영화 ‘미녀는 괴로워’의 배우 김아중을 캐스팅했다.

In the meantime, before Doosan’s announcement Jinro has already been using Kim Ah-Joong, the star of 200 Pound Beauty, in its ad campaigns for its “Chamisul Fresh” brand of soju.

이로써 진로와 두산은 각각 이효리와 김아중을 모델로 내세워 연말 소주 판촉전을 치열하게 벌일 전망이다. 진로와 두산은 지난해부터 저도주 출시와 함께 소주시장 점유율, 첨가물 등을 놓고 치열한 공방을 벌여왔다.

In light of these developments in the soju industry, Doosan and Jinro are now intensively engaged in a “soju war.” This rivalry comes on top of an already fierce competition for market share in low-strength alcohol beverages that they began last year. 

(My personal favorite. Many more pictures like those available here)

As you can see, I’ve decided to go back to my original format for translations of articles. It does make the English a little more tiring to read, sorry, but as a good proportion of people who actually read the blog are interested in learning Korean, then I think the line-by-line format makes it much easier for people to keep track of things. Especially of mistakes (please don’t be shy to point them out), and I have to admit that I paraphrase roughly 95% of the time am sometimes prone to paraphrase things, partially because I often find the exact meaning of some Korean text very different to pin-down, and so could easily translate it many different but similar ways, but also because I’m usually finishing posts when I should be in bed, so errors can creep in that way too.

(I could also mention that all the above is really BS, and I’m actually writing this way again because it makes translations infinitely easier for me to type up, but that would be much too candid)

Now, all of the above was written on Sunday morning before I left to go to Seoul, and I took my laptop up with me thinking I could finish it while I was there, but in my friend’s cramped apartment it proved impossible. But the delay turned out to be good timing in the end though, because today Korea Beat has translated an article from the Hankyoreh about why men are featured in beer ads here and women in soju ads, something I’ve never noticed in 7 years here and despite all my recent attention on the subject. If you’ve read this far then I’m sure you’ll be interested in that one too, so I recommend you check it out, and it actually adds a few more details to today’s topic. To reciprocate, I should point out that while men are featured in beer ads here to to increase beer’s appeal to women, like Korean Beat says, if you go out drinking these days it’s difficult not to miss this ad which is still aimed at women but which has an attractive woman in it, the idea presumably being that if you drink the “fiber beer” you won’t get as fat as if you drink normal beer. Thanks to Max Watson for the poster and links.

That’s the first women’s body-focused beer ad for women I’ve ever seen here, so it’s too early to say if it will be one-off or a new trend. Personally, when I first saw the TV ad it reminded me of the shampoo advert/soft porn in What Women Really Want of a voluptuous blonde running in the sand, and Mel Gibson turning off that crap that clearly some guy had come up with (not that that automatically makes it bad, but you get the idea). Although I don’t think I have many female readers (I can’t imagine why), I’d be really interested in hearing their opinions on the above ad, but if I may hazard a guess I think some women out there may well be persuaded to buy the drink: since I bought the brilliant book An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture by Dominic Strinati in 2000, amongst other reasons, I can’t say I’ve consciously bought a product because I wanted to be just like the guys in the ads in maybe 10 years, but I can recall several occasions in which I did before then, and of course we are all still influenced by ads, even Korean ones. So I’ll be interested to see how popular this “women’s beer” does become.

And as for my original question on the significance of somewhat less than virginal-looking Lee Hyori in soju advertisements? I think my original take on it is still correct, and in 20 years time Korean sociology students may well be taught that the ads were a watershed in the portrayal of Korean women in the media, in turn being either a spur to or reflection of changes to notions of women’s sexuality in Koreans society…or they may not. Even I should end further speculation at this point, and get back to enjoying the pictures go to bed.

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