Image Matters

Some of my Korean friends have told me that, on this blog, sometimes my point of view about Korea is quite sarcastic and thus they urged me to post some positive side about things in Korea. I don't intend at all to disappoint them, however, the impression I got from today's post made me uncomfortable. The illustration shows a man and a woman trying to get in the metro door shutting and apparently they are taking risk of being collided by the doors. The caption says "ONLY BECAUSE OF A FEW SECONDS... are you going to let your image be damaged?" The reason why I was upset was Seoul Metro's approach to arousing people's attentions to a certain way of boarding. It should have been guided in the matter of causing danger or injury, not of impairing your image.


Today, I am tagged by Don in Rotterdam, one of my favourite daily blogs, and the rule to play is to list eight random things about myself that you do not know. So here comes mine.

1. I haven't gone clubbing for more than four months.
2. My favourite football players are Thierry Henry and Arjen Robben.
3. I don't like chocolate.
4. I love Dutch cheese.
5. I want to live in Ireland once again.
6. My current goal is to take the opportunity to go to Europe next spring.
7. I need multi-vitamin tablets.
8. I have a tattoo on my lower back.

Tin Robot

Walking on Insadong Street with my colleague, I found this tin robot, a mascot of a boiler manufacturing company. What a perfect symbol for the enterprise!

Show

This guys were hired to promote a new service of a telecom company. What I was thinking about them was 'making money is not easy at all.'

Beckam Humiliated

Can you see why I put the title above? You are kindly advised to click the photo to find an answer.

Roots

A giant hooded sweatshirt on a building.

Liquor Ads

I'm aware that many of liquor ads link themselves with sexuality but, regarding those advertisements by Korean liquor companies, the actual way they look is quite explicit I think. Of various kinds of spirits, 'soju', Korean distilled liquor always displays female models who are intended to tempt men to desire to have drinks with those glamorous models. As far as I have observed, I have to admit it works to some extent.

Underground Branding

As for the cities having underground, except Seoul, I have visited Paris, Berlin, Munich and London. And I've recently found there are a couple of different things between our capital city and the rest, which is that the underground stations in Korea call a subway entering, its destination and a safety warning both in Korean and English. In addition, until I last went to those European cities, I hadn't seen the underground branding like the one on the photo. This ad is about Visit Year Kyeongbuk 2007, located in the southeast of Korea, where there are lots of cultural heritage of Silla, one of the ancient countries on the peninsula, from 57 BC to AD 935.

New Pepsi 새로운 펩시

First of all, I have to say I have nothing to do with Pepsi. Pepsi has recently brought new package design and I'm curious what Pepsi's challenge will lead to. This photo was taken on the underground and I think the idea of hanging the can on the metal strap of handles is quite interesting. How did they do that, by the way?

우선 난 펩시와는 아무 상관 없는 사람임을 밝히는 바이다.
최근에 펩시는 새로운 패키지 디자인을 들고 나왔는데,
펩시의 도전이 어떤 결과를 가져올지 궁금하다.
이 사진은 지하철 내에서 찍은 것인데,
손잡이의 금속 연결 부분에 캔을 달아놓은 아이디어가 기발해보인다.
그나저나 저걸 어떻게 달았을까?