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| Visitors to the joint memorial altar for ferry-sinking victims in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday, fly yellow balloons during an event to commemorate them. / Korea Times |
Not everyone happy about ad critical of President Park
By Jane Han
NEW YORK ― Another New York Times ad is stirring controversy. But this time, it's not about bibimbap, bulgogi or Dokdo. It's about the sunken ferry Sewol.
Last week, a group of Koreans in Los Angeles launched a fundraising campaign to sponsor a full-page ad in the New York Times denouncing the Park Geun-hye administration's handling of the Sewol ferry disaster.
Their goal was to raise just over $58,000, the estimated amount needed to purchase a New York Times advertisement. But in a little over a week, they raised almost $160,000 funded by more than 4,000 people.
The ad is expected to run soon, but not everyone is happy about a full-page ad criticizing the Korean government.
''I understand people are angry. We are all furious about the tragedy, but what do we get out of publicly condemning the government in a New York Times ad? What's with all these New York Times ads anyway?'' says John, 44, a PR firm executive in New York who didn't want to disclose his last name.
''Being in the marketing and public relations industry, I know that this newspaper ad is going to do very little to help organizers get what they want,'' he said.
An image of the proposed ad on indiegogo.com, an international crowd-funding platform used for the campaign, shows the headline, ''Sewol ferry has sunk, so has the Park administration.''
It goes on to say, ''Who's responsible for these numbers? The Park administration! We all continue to count the numbers until all who are missing return home.''
The ad, in black and white, has been created by volunteer designers and copywriters, according to organizers.
''We know from past New York Times ads, for example, the recent Choo Shin-soo bulgogi ad, that these campaigns just end up puzzling people,'' says Choi Sue-young, 34, a graphic designer in New Jersey. ''I don't know if this one is going to be any different. Let's just hope so.''
Organizers seem confident about their agenda. So why the New York Times?
''In the recent South Korean ferry tragedy, 302 passengers lost their lives or are still missing. While this event has raised specific concerns about the Park administration's disaster control efforts, it has also ignited outrage over a larger issue in South Korea: government censorship and the suppression of free speech,'' according to the campaign's indiegogo page.
''By placing an ad in the New York Times, we want the world to know the ugly truth of the current administration, and hope the ad would help start the conversation to bring changes in Korea,'' it said.
Supporters of the ad campaign, many of them vocal on MissyUSA, the largest online community among Koreans, are also determined to push forward.
''If we can't correct our own problems, we need to get help from outside. It's not a time to worry about national pride. We can't go through another tragedy like this,'' wrote one user, who claimed to have donated money several times to fund the ad.
As debate continues between those for and against the campaign, the New York Times ad is expected to run soon since the funding ended on May 9.
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