Advertising in Busan

( Source )

No attempt at analysis here sorry: I simply seem to be attracted to high-definition close-ups of women’s faces these days (see here for another example), and enjoy looking at them in the same sense that I would any other form of photography or art. This particular example is an advertisement for the “Noblesse” (노블레스) cosmetic surgery clinic in Busan, which many local readers will have noticed on the sides of many buses. For obvious reasons though, probably the “Small Face, Lovely Breast” advertisements of rival chain “W Cosmetic Surgery” are better known amongst expats.

Long-term readers might find it strange and even somewhat hypocritical that I admire something promoting cosmetic surgery, but then the advertisement is still aesthetically pleasing regardless of the subject. Moreover, despite my criticisms I’ve never actually been against cosmetic surgery per se, nor have I ever claimed that the results can’t be attractive; rather, I’m against the sociocultural factors that compel all too many Korean women to feel that they’re unattractive and/or lacking without it, and especially for the popularity of operations here that, regardless of individual Korean women’s various alternative justifications for them, still seem to primarily serve to make them look less Korean and more Caucasian (or Eurasian). Lest new readers think that that sounds like an outrageous claim to make of, say, (virtually mandatory) double-eyelid surgery, then I’d respond that these things can’t be studied in isolation.

I mention all the above (again) because one more excellent paper I’ve just discovered which gives further data (both positive and negative) on what I regard as Korean Women’s Caucasian Beauty Ideals is “Gender Role Portrayals in American and Korean Advertisements” by Roxanne Hovland et. al. in the December 2005 edition of Sex Roles: A Journal of Research. I’ll be discussing that in a separate post soon; if people would like to read it for themselves before then – and I heartily recommend that they do – then it can be downloaded here. Personally, I’m especially interested in the systematic frameworks for studying gender roles in advertisements developed by Goffman and Kang mentioned in it, which I’ll be aiming to use myself from now on.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. For now, I also wanted to mention that the Busan International Advertising Festival, “the world’s first convergent online/offline advertising festival” is to be held in the Grand Hotel in Haeundae from Tuesday October the 21st to Friday the 24th, and just based on the submissions to its website alone it promises to be a very interesting event. Naturally I’m very glad that it’s not in Seoul, as 9 out of 10 international conferences in Korea tend to be, and so although work will mean that I miss most of it I’ll still make sure to attend in the mornings. Anyone who wants to join me, please let me know.

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