'Team Kim' mocked in Lotte's ad
Korean women’s curling team skip Kim Eun-jeong, left, and a Lotte Foods model promoting the company’s Uiseong Garlic Ham / Courtesy of Lotte Foods
By Park Jae-hyuk
Lotte Foods has come under sharp criticism for allegedly cashing in on the nation’s curling fever.
The food business arm of Lotte Group posted a parody of the women’s curling team skip Kim Eun-jeong on Instagram last month to promote the company’s Uiseong Garlic Ham made with garlic from the hometown of Kim and her teammates in North Gyeongsang Province.
The southeastern county is known for garlic, so the Korean women’s curling team members, who earned a silver medal at the PyeongChang Winter Games, have often been called the “Garlic Girls.”
In the parody ad, a model wearing glasses poses as the female curler and holds the garlic ham, instead of a curling stone.
Lotte Foods also wrote “Young-mi” ― the given name of one of Kim’s teammates that became a national chant of support for the team ― on the post with hashtags including phrases like “Uiseong Garlic Ham” and “Do you recognize the likeness?”
Amid the nationwide sensation, the food firm carried out a swift marketing campaign, distributing the garlic ham to Uiseong residents for free when they gathered at a gymnasium to root for their neighbors.
Fans therefore expected the company would hire the “Garlic Girls” as the product’s spokespersons as soon as the Olympics ended.
The food firm, however, decided to make a parody ad which costs much less than shooting a commercial with the real athletes or sponsoring them.
Customers have criticized Lotte’s decision, saying the nation’s fifth-largest conglomerate ridiculed and exploited the athletes.
They compared the retail giant to its rival, Shinsegae Group, which has donated 10 billion won ($9.2 million) to the Korea Curling Federation since 2012.
The nation’s 10th-largest conglomerate also gave 240 million won to both the men’s and women’s curling teams to reward them for their Olympic achievements.
Fila, which signed a sponsorship contract with the Korea Curling Federation in 2012, gave 120 million won to the national curling team as well.
Amid growing criticism, Lotte later took down the parody ad, admitting it has never sponsored the national curling team.
However, the conglomerate emphasized the group paid over 50 billion won for the PyeongChang Winter Olympics and for improvements in the country’s winter sports.