Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Controversy arises over child model in Baskin Robbins commercial
By Bahk Eun-ji
A recent commercial by Baskin-Robbins, a global ice cream brand, starring famous child model Ella Gross, has been criticized for sexually objectifying the child.
The company removed the images and apologized for causing a stir, but the criticism is not dying down.
Baskin-Robbins Korea released a 30-second video for new ice cream flavors on its social media channels Friday. In the video, the 10-year-old model, wearing a pink sleeveless dress and heavy make-up, tastes the new flavor of ice cream.
Images of Baskin Robbins commercial starring famous child model Ella Gross / Captured from Facebook
By Bahk Eun-ji
Internet users were critical of the commercial, saying the portrayal of the child was improper. “The camera lens focused too much on her lips and her action of putting the ice cream into her mouth. It can be misinterpreted as sexual fantasies about children, referring to pedophilia,” an internet user said.
A lot of other users also said they felt uncomfortable with the child model's image. “The outfit of this child model should be worn by grown-up models, not by such a young child. Moreover, this commercial is just emphasizing femininity,” another internet user said.
Baskin-Robbins Korea removed the clip and posted a written apology a day after releasing the commercial. In the statement, the company said it had discussed the concept of the commercial with the model's parents fully and the parents were accompanying her when they filmed it.
“The make-up she was wearing was at the general level applied to other child models, and the dress she was wearing was also from a children's clothes brand she is currently working for as a model,” the statement read. “But we removed the image after accepting customers' opinions.”
However, the statement caused more criticism from internet users who said the posting was not an apology but simply an excuse. The company took the statement down later as the controversy refused to go away.