Tag: advertising

On Building a Makkeoli Market

gordsellar0 Comments

Zenkimchi wants Korean promoters to stop calling makkeoli “rice wine” for the very obvious reason that it’s actually not a wine. Of course it’s not rice wine, it’s rice beer (or, yes, specifically “rice ale”), as any brewer can tell you. Of course, he sort of bolts past the point that is very obvious in this picture: If you look at that image for a moment, you’ll get why there’s not a hope in hell Korean makkeoli-promoters are going to consider branding makkeoli as “rice beer” or “rice ale.”

Continue Reading

B.A.R.F….For Your Dog’s Health!

gordsellar2 Comments

Found this image while cleaning out the drive for the videocamera I’m sending off to Miss Jiwaku. It was something I saw in, I think, Emart a year ago.The quality isn’t so great, but I can’t not post it: Yes, the Ultimate Diet for your dog. But it’s not what you might think… did you spot it? Yep, that logo, to the bottom left of the Ultimate Diet image packaging: Wow, I am sure someone out there thinks himself very, very clever! Of course, I can’t see myself buying that for any dog, myself, even if the bones and ambiguously …

Continue Reading

Interlude: Reading Chamiseul, and Revisiting Gin Lane

gordsellar0 Comments
This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Gin Lane & Soju-Ro

So I was in the cinema waiting for a movie to start, and I saw this advertisement for 참이슬 soju. I found it both interesting and depressing. If you watch it, I’ll be you can see why: Basically, the ad suggests that all human social interactions that aren’t lubricated by alcohol suck. Alcohol is, of course, what prevents dates from being boring and timid: … and we all know office work is a true drudgery… … though with one’s little invisible ethanolic friends to entertain one… … it’s not so bad after all: (Is this an argument for drinking on …

Continue Reading

Define “Big,” and Define “Butts” (Plus a Barrage of Amusing Youtube Videos)

gordsellar5 Comments

The other day, while I was searching for the video “Soju Mama” in a recent post, I ran across this commercial: The fact they used this song, and this celebrity, in this commercial, suggests one of these two possibilities: They figured most people don’t know what “I like big butts” means. Which is maybe plausible, since I find most Koreans who aren’t really high-level in English translate whichever Korean word indicates both (is it 엉덩이? That’s the one I learned first and remembered because I heard it so often, so I assume it’s the most common) as “hip” to indicate …

Continue Reading

Mac vs. Windows vs. The Other Guy: Think Prophylactics and Full Potential

gordsellar7 Comments

So this mailing list I’m on is caught up in one of its repeating discussion-obsessions. The Mac fanatics are arguing the points of the Mac. The Windows users are responding, mostly in terms of how much better Windows is for gaming. I am reading it on my little Linux machine. Outside my window, I can hear one of those bloody trucks that drives around selling stuff. You don’t have these in most countries. I really wish someone would make it illegal to disturb the peace that way… driving around the back roads and side streets with a loudspeaker attached to …

Continue Reading