If Nothing Else Works, Try Appealing To Koreans’ Inferiority Complex

That appears to be the thinking behind the ubiquitous posters of white guys not smoking that you can see around Seoul these days.  My favorite is a fat old wealthy industrialist leaning on the mantlepiece of a palacial fireplace holding a hotdog like a cigar.

Here’s another one.

‘In developed countries* people consult with their doctors about quitting smoking.

There is a new smoking cessation technique more effective than you think waiting for you at your doctor’s’

The gist of the campaign is essentially ‘White countries don’t smoke anymore and neither should we.’  I should point out that Japan, one of the other ‘developed countries’, makes no appearance.

It always makes me sad to see this kind of marketing here.  On one level it’s somewhat equivalent to the concept of the ‘European secret’ as used in American marketing, but with way more racial implications.

Note, for example, that when you go to the website of the popular (?) Maasai Walking Shoe maker Ryn, you see this:

The Maasai Walking Shoe Website.

See, it’s all good that it was made in Africa, but until it has the white country seal of approval, it’s nothing in Korea.

 

*The word ‘선진국’ can be translated variously as ‘advanced country’, ‘developed country’ or ‘leading country’.  I used ‘developed country’ because it’s so fraught and charged.  I may be intellectually dishonest, but at least I’m honest about it.

~ by joemondello on June 30, 2008.