By Kwon Mee-yoo
“Creative Korea,” the controversial national brand slogan, will disappear into history even before celebrating its first anniversary.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Thursday that “Creative Korea” will not be used anymore. The ministry noted that the slogan has become linked with corruption and it is hard to expect it to promote Korea's national image.
Debuting July 2016, the 3.5 billion won ($3 million) national catchphrase was mired with plagiarism accusations as soon as it was introduced. The slogan and its logo were suspected of pirating “Creative France,” the French campaign promoting the country's international investment.
Experts also said the logo failed to reflect the image of Korea, thus not properly representing the country.
Later last year, it was involved in former president Park Geun-hye’s corruption scandal linked with Park’s close friend Choi Soon-sil as the slogan was influenced by Cha Eun-taek, a visual artist who was an associate of Choi.
Following a series of controversies, the ministry could not use the slogan to publicize Korea's national brand and the project budget was cut.
The barely surviving “Creative Korea” officially came to an end when new Culture Minister Do Jong-hwan took office earlier this month, saying that the catchphrase failed to earn empathy and trustworthiness from the people.
The ministry will not develop a new national brand slogan to substitute for the troubled one.
“We are not considering making a new slogan. A national brand is not established in an instant by proclaiming a catchphrase, but reflects a country's holistic social and cultural values such as national character, cultural heritage, tourism infrastructure and government policy direction. So we will focus on improving the living culture of Koreans overall instead of making a new slogan,” a ministry official said.