South Korean milk commercial turns women into cows
A man with a camera sneaking up on yoga women in a meadow, who then turn into cows: A commercial by South Korean milk brand Seoul Milk has been criticized on social media. Users found the commercial not only sexist, but also reminiscent of illegal camera voyeurism. The ad quickly disappeared from the company's official YouTube channel, which has since apologized.
The narrative of the commercial is reminiscent of a nature documentary. "They drink pure water from untouched nature, consume environmentally friendly organic food and live peacefully in a tranquil environment," says the man with the camera, carefully approaching the women dressed in white. When the filmmaker steps on a branch, it doesn't scare them off. Instead, when he looks back towards the meadow, he suddenly sees cows. Perhaps this is meant to be reminiscent of the camouflage mechanisms of mythological shapeshifters.
However, the commercial uploaded to YouTube at the end of November was not particularly well received by the public. On the one hand, there is something sexist about implicitly equating women with cows, as many criticized. In addition, some South Koreans were annoyed that the secret filming reminded them of "molka". This is what Koreans call the illegal taking of voyeuristic pictures of scantily clad or unclothed women using hidden spy cameras - often in toilets, bathrooms or changing rooms. According to Korea Times a plague in South Korea. From 2013 to 2018, there were over 30,000 reported cases.
Group apologizes
After around ten days, Seoul Milk responded to the shitstorm and removed the strange commercial from its official YouTube channel. "We sincerely apologize to all those who felt uncomfortable with the milk advertising video," the dairy company wrote in a statement on its website. The company takes the matter seriously and wants to take better care to ensure that such problems do not occur again in future, it continues. (pte/swi)
