North Korean TV Commercials

As you know, I have been trying to read and view media from North Korea to satisfy my own curiosity and came across these three commercials and commentary on the adverts.  While they  probably won’t win any Cannes Lions, as they all seem to share the same unbearable Korean polka music and low-fi graphics, they are kitschy enough for a good laugh.

Beer Commercial

Ginseng Commercial

Quail Restaurant in Pyongyang

Commentary from The AP

However, recent reports from South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency suggest these may be the first and last we’ll ever see of such ads:

SEOUL, Nov. 8 (Yonhap) –North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sacked his television point man in anger over commercials that made a splash earlier this year by promoting the communist state’s beer and other local products, sources here said Sunday.

“Recently, Kim saw the commercials while watching TV. He was enraged, asking where the commercials came from and describing them as the prototype of China’s early reforms,” one source said.

Starting July 2, North Korea’s television played commercials that showed young women in traditional clothes serving frothy mugs of Taedonggang beer billed as “Pride of Pyongyang.”

Other products, including ginseng and quail, soon followed in television advertisements, which had rarely been seen in the country, generating outside speculation that North Korea may be starting to embrace the capitalist mode of life.

But according to Yonhap News Agency’s own analysis, the commercials disappeared as of the end of August. The sources said Cha Sung-su, the North’s top broadcaster, has also been discharged.

One source said Cha may have been unduly victimized in the case because the commercials were a product of Kim’s earlier instruction to create “more interesting and diverse” television programs.

 

Advertisement