Comments on: Revealing Soju Ads: Update

By: BoA Becomes a Woman? | Wif Fun

BoA Becomes a Woman? | Wif Fun — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:03:14 +0000

[...] getting more hits practicing Korean, the ad does tie in with this some observations I made in this November post about alcohol advertisements in Korea. In a nutshell, I learned that soju ads are primarily aimed [...]

By: James Turnbull

James Turnbull — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:33:33 +0000

Rocketfuel, I definitely agree that Lee Hyori is a brand to herself, and because of that signing a contract with her to sell soju may be just that, and not indicative of any changes in the way Korean women are presented and perceived by the media. My gut feeling is that things are changing, but it’ll take a lot more than a year of Lee Hyori ads before I’m able to say that Korean society is beginning to accept women being sexually assertive.

Sollee, I can’t say I’m offended by the ads at all, but I admit that the women in them are essentially superfluous, and intellectually I can see why women might react negatively to them even if I have no problems with them myself. It’s a bit of a jump, but in all seriousness I can also see the positive sides of the development for Korean freedom of speech and democratisation with women being able to present more daring and sexual provocative posts in ads: if anyone’s interested, you can see my post on that here.

By: rocketfuel

rocketfuel — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 22:15:59 +0000

these “women” are brand names themselves and their name is usually stronger than the brand of soju itself….

So, sometimes, when I’m out in Ktown…I want to steal certain soju posters because they have a Hot korean celebritiy on it. I could really care less about the soju they are trying to sell since I already have my own preference. But because of those ads, I am able to associate which celebrity goes with which brand….and that comes in handy for advertisers when these same celebrities are out doing their thing on film or television.

By: sollee

sollee — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:46:37 +0000

you know one reason why they add beautiful and sexy women alongside those alcoholic drinks is bec. you already get drunk when you see those women before you even tasted alcohol..hehe…but kidding aside…why do we need to show women as decorations on those advertisements?…can we not think of other ways to promote our products besides using women..ofcourse i’m being too conservative at times but when i see women losing their gentleness and innocence by just mere posing provocatively and holding alcohol as if telling us to get drunk…something hits me inside…as a woman i still prefer to project gentleness to the public eye…maybe i need to wake up to reality don’t i?…maybe i should have lived 100 years ago..