Korea's largest dairy company criticized for depicting women as cows in ad

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Mon, October 2, 2023 | 21:30

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Korea's largest dairy company criticized for depicting women as cows in ad

Posted : 2021-12-12 18:32

Updated : 2021-12-19 17:11

Seoul Milk, Korea's leading dairy product brand, faced a huge backlash recently from the public over a controversial online commercial that seemed to compare women to cows and showed a man secretly filming them, reminding the public of the illegal spycam crimes that have been plaguing Korea in recent years.

The ad, uploaded on Seoul Milk's official YouTube channel on Nov. 29 and now taken down, shows a male hiker in the wilderness stumbling upon a group of women and men dressed in white clothes practicing yoga outdoors. The hiker secretly films them, as a woman from the group erotically drinks water from a leaf.

At that moment, the hiker accidentally steps on a branch, and the women disappear and turn into dairy cows in the blink of an eye.

This ad has drawn a wave of strong criticism from the public, saying it's "disgusting" how it compares women to cows and that the man with the camera reminds them of the hidden spycam crimes rampant in Korea. In other words, the ad is proof that South Korea's gender sensitivity is still at a very low level. Seoul Milk took down the video and posted an apology on its website on Dec. 8.