Yet another PR 'disaster'

Hyolin from K-pop girl band SISTAR appears in a promotional video for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea / Courtesy of YouTube

By Hong Dam-young

Public relations teams responsible for some of Seoul’s landmark campaigns have left foreigners scratching their heads trying to understand what the experts want to convey. The situation has been branded Korea’s “PR disaster.”

One example is a promotional music video for Korea’s 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. This controversial video, made by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and released on Sept. 28, has been criticized for its quality.

Critics say the video fails to promote the Olympics, to be held in the Gangwon Province city. They say it is just a mix of random elements that the producers deemed appealing to foreign viewers.

The video, titled “Arari-yo,” features Hyolin from K-pop girl group SISTAR and some famous Korean comedians. It also squeezes in a short parody of American TV talk show host Conan O’Brien, who visited Korea in February.

But besides that, all the video shows is a group of people dancing nonstop.

One netizen said: “How is this supposed to be a promotional video of the Olympics when it doesn’t promote it?”

The ministry said on Tuesday the video was not an official teaser for the event but a clip to advertise a dance contest the ministry organized to celebrate the Olympics.

Many could not believe that the ministry poured 275 million won ($240,000) into the video’s production.

“This is a crappy fiasco,” one netizen said. “Middle school students would make a better video with such an amount of money.”

Seoul City's official logo "I Seoul U" / Yonhap

The second PR “disaster” revolves around Seoul City’s official logo, “I Seoul U.”

The city said on Monday it would celebrate the one-year anniversary of the logo that replaced the 13-year-old “Hi Seoul” on Oct. 28, 2015. The new logo purports to suggest that the city is a place where two individuals can co-exist.

But many critics say the logo hardly conveys the intended message and foreigners, who the city is targeting, have had difficulty digesting the meaning without a follow-up explanation.

After a year, many people still find it difficult to connect the logo with the message.

“I have no idea what this logo means,” a U.S. citizen said when The Korea Times showed it to him. “If somebody has to explain the meaning, it’s not a good logo.”

A flyover near Seoul Station, "Seoullo 7017," is under renovation. It will become a city park and open to the public in April 2017. / Yonhap

The third PR “disaster” is the name “Seoullo 7017,” given to a flyover under reconstruction near Seoul Station, which opens next April. The dilapidated overpass-turned-city park is highly anticipated to become a proud landmark of the station that always bustles with foreign tourists.

“Seoullo” literally means “a road to Seoul” in Korean, and “7017” is a compound of 1970, the year the flyover was completed, and 2017, the year it re-opens.

Would foreigners be able to pick up such a meaning?

“Well, I have no idea,” said another U.S. citizen, who was asked to guess its meaning.

“I wouldn’t have known without an explanation, or unless I’m a native Korean.”