Promoting tourism in Korea has been a topic of interest this week at the ROK Drop, and now acccording to KBS, the "Korea Sparkling" tourism slogan is now taking America by storm:
An ad promoting the nation as a tourist destination won a top prize in the film and video category at the New York Festivals event on Friday.
The gold medal-winning video entitled "Korea, Sparkling" was produced by the Korea Tourism Organization.
A promo for Korean cuisine called the "Wonderful World of Korean Food" also won a silver.
The awards given by the 50-year-old New York Festivals are among the world’s top three advertising honors.
The national tourism organization expects the prize to help raise Korea’s brand recognition and image in the United States.
The agency also won top honors at the Adrian Awards in New York on Monday for a tourism ad starring the pop singer Rain. [KBS Global]
I haven’t been in the US in quite a while, so I’m not sure if these ads are even airing in America, but I did find them on YouTube. This first tourism ad is actually pretty good with only one small problem, it has Rain in it:
A western audience is going to watch that and think who is this guy telling me he is "sparkling"? The next tourism ad also has Rain in it and isn’t as good as the first one:
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Finally this ad is long, but isn’t to bad especially since Rain is not in it:
I did like the music in the adds which are a mix of traditional and modern Korean music. The scenery in the ads were mostly very well shot, but Rain has got to go. For ads targeting Asia I can understand using him, but in western nations he is not known. The ads are however better than the old "Dynamic Korea" ads, but I think the "Korea Sparkling" slogan just is not catchy to a western audience and needs to be changed.  Â
Has anyone seen these ads being televised in the US by chance and have any thoughts on them? Â
Popularity: 2%
3:15 pm on February 9th, 2008 1
I notice most of the images used in this campaign are shot from a distance and/or are very selective. I like the images of the disco. Show us what’s directly outside the door of the disco. Show us the head in the disco.
Until Smell-o-Vision equiped TV’s become wide spread, truth in advertising will be somewhat lacking.
Sparkling, not so much. I would have Chosen (pun alert):
Korea, Glistening
Like the glistening puke puddles outside the previously discussed disco.
1:04 am on February 10th, 2008 2
Not a single shot of an ajumma squatting on the side of the road, smoking a cigarette tending to the acre of red peppers she has spread out all over the sidewalk and half-way into the street. All while taxi cabs come racing down the main drag dodging the one-eyed buffalo and its operator–both of whom are wearing the identical white cotton work gloves with the red rubber sprayed on the palms and fingers.
And not a single reference to fan death either.
These commercials totally suck.
11:54 am on February 10th, 2008 3
I agree with you about Rain, and wrote pretty much the same thing as you did in my comment over at the Marmot’s post about it.
It’s a very old debate now, but I’m going to give “Korea, sparkling” a chance. I didn’t think much of it when I first heard it either, but then I heard Michael Hurt’s podcast in which he interviews the representative of the company that came up with it, and she had a point about “Dynamic Korea” conjuring up mainly economic images, and “The Soul of Asia” being great for Seoul but not really Korea as a whole. The comma in the slogan may seem trivial, but considering how many millions the Korean government would have paid for it then more attention should be paid to it, and the whole slogan does sound better with the pause it gives. My two cents anyway.
Thanks for the link in your weekly winklet BTW.