“Prim Actress Gets Messy in New TV Ad”

Or so says the Chosun Ilbo, in the third most widely read “news” story in the digital version of the paper today:  

Actress Kim Tae-hee has become the talk of the town with a commercial in which she appears with no make-up. The commercial for Olympus Korea emphasizes Kim’s natural side. Sporting a mane of untidy hair as if she just woke up, she curls her lips, plays with a teddy bear, frowns, and sucks a lollipop.

It reads like Playboy magazine (or so my friend tells me). A few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have given a second thought to this mindless trash weekend space-filler, but actually I found it indirectly via checking out the most read story “Oprah Winfrey’s Negative Remarks about Korean Women Spark Storm.” Naturally, after writing about 7500 words worth of posts recently on Korean women and the Korean plastic surgery industry, I was in like Flynn, but then I realised that the article was actually from 2004.

That date got me thinking: maybe, just maybe, that four-year old story is indeed the most widely read story at the Chosun Ilbo (Why?). But the other four out of the five are all recent, so is it too much to think that the rankings may be manipulated? Sure, it probably is too much. But then consider the rest of number three:

The commercial has received a strong response because it shows another side of the actress, who has used the fact that she is intelligent and refined as a graduate of the prestigious Seoul National University to appeal to the public.

…

Internet users responded favorably, saying it’s good to see the “ordinary side” of the normally more polished actress. “The commercial makes Kim look like one of the people around us. I suddenly came to like her,” a user wrote.

(Photo by…er… Amber Dorko Stopper)

At first, I was happy to find an article about an ad that seemed to challenge the prevailing Korean opinion that women must put heavy make-up on and be immacuately dressed before leaving the house, even if it’s just across the road for some milk. But then I realised that the newspaper regards netizens as a reliable news source - never a good sign - and that in every single “news article” I’ve read about Korean advertisements, the reporters have always claimed that Koreans are responding to the ads, well, pretty much exactly as the advertisers intended. And this isn’t just a feature of the abysmal English-language media in Korea either, which seems to operate under the assumption that Korea must always be presented as a veritable Shangra-la to all non-Koreans; the same was said of many advertisements in this piece I translated last week for instance, and many before that too. Not once have I read that, say, “Koreans think ad sucks,” or “Women react angrily to patronising ad.” At least, not a Korean ad that is.

Yep, the obvious conclusion is that companies probably pay Korean newspapers to write such reports. It’s just common-sense…sorry if you were expecting something more profound. But what is my common-sense isn’t always yours, and sure as hell isn’t many Koreans’ either. I’m going to try and ask some Korean aquaintances (not friends, they’d agree with me) and see if they think the same.

In the meantime, I think it’s debatable whether the ad indeed shows off Kim Tae-Hee’s “more natural side”? And even if I did, I’m not sure I’d feel compelled to wax lyrical about it on internet message boards.

Update: Brian in Jeollanam-do has quite a convincing reason for why that old article about Oprah Winfrey was suddenly so popular.

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