Tag: slogans

I think the slogan should be “Let’s Hope It Is Not More of the Same”:

South Korea has chosen “Peace, a new start” as a slogan for the upcoming inter-Korean summit, which will be held in late April, the presidential office said Sunday.

The slogan signifies the journey that the two Koreas will have to take to achieve global peace by holding their first summit in 11 years, and that the summit will also serve as a guide for summit talks between North Korea and the United States, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom told reporters.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but does any ROK Heads have their own suggestions on what the Inter-Korean Summit slogan should be?

Via a reader tip comes the latest slogan disaster from South Korea, this time from the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics:

“It’s you, PyeongChang.”

It makes sense grammatically, but what does it mean?

Many foreigners scratched their heads after reading the sentence featuring in an advertisement in major newspapers on Monday meant to promote the nation’s first winter Olympics in the mountain city of PyeongChang in February 2018.

The Gangwon Province government that created the ad said “It’s you, PyeongChang” was intended to promote that every member of the global village, Koreans and non-Koreans alike, has a role to make the event a success.

Yet few seemed to have found the message from it.

“The phrase doesn’t reach me in anyway,” said Celeste Kriel, a South African living in Seoul. “It can be interpreted in so many ways that it’s hard to grasp the message.”

An American teacher in Seoul said, “It sounds like they are really missing PyongChang… Maybe PyongChang is their long lost lover?”

Several other foreigners told The Korea Times that the message “unclear” and bewildering.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how much money they paid for some PR firm to come up with this slogan.  Should have just asked us here at the ROK Drop to come up with slogans.  Does anyone have any slogan suggestions they want to share?

What an embarrassment for the Park administration if they did in fact plagiarize the new national slogan.  Even if they did not plagiarize it they still should have been aware that a major country like France was already using the slogan:

The Park Geun-hye administration’s newly created national slogan celebrating Korean creativity was plagiarized from a French campaign, an opposition lawmaker and renowned designer said Wednesday.

Rep. Sohn Hye-won of the Minjoo Party of Korea said during the interim leadership meeting in the morning that the government’s “Creative Korea” slogan and its logo design plagiarized the “Creative France” campaign of Business France, a French national agency promoting international investment in the country.

“Using the word ‘creative’ in front of the name of the country in the slogan, and using the red and blue colors in the logo design, are blatant acts of plagiarism,” Sohn said. “It is especially embarrassing that the plagiarized slogan is celebrating creativity.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but it is pretty ironic that a slogan pushing creativity was possibly plagiarized.

What is it with South Korea and horrible slogans?:

The government on Monday officially adopted “Creative Korea” as South Korea’s new national slogan and promote it internationally to highlight the importance the country places on fostering creativity.

The country had used “Dynamic Korea,” as its official slogan ahead of the 2002 South Korea-Japan World Cup.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism chose the new slogan based on public polls that singled out “creativity,” “passion and “harmony” as the three main keywords that can best identify Korea, and listened to opinions from local and foreign experts.

The ministry said while “passion” was the driving force of building today’s Korea from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War, “creativity” is a value that the country should pursue to move itself forward to cope with changing demands of the time.

To promote the image, the government will launch a national brand campaign on foreign news media outlets such as CNN and BBC and its overseas missions and relevant organizations, including Korean cultural centers and the Korea Tourism Organization.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but at least this slogan is not as bad as Seoul’s new slogan.

The Mayor of Seoul is defending the city’s new slogan I.Seoul.U by claiming that since it make no sense that it could mean anything:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government will stick to its new slogan, “I.Seoul.U,” Mayor Park Won-soon said Monday.

“Many slogans of cities around the world receive negative feedback at first,” he said during a luncheon with reporters at City Hall. “After a while, I expect the negative reactions will change.”

“Even if we start all over again and come up with a new slogan, it will face some sort of criticism. That cannot be avoided.”

This is the first time that the mayor expressed his opinion about the slogan.

“I.Seoul.U” was selected as the capital city’s slogan on Oct. 28, after beating two other finalists ― “Seoulmate” and “SEOULing.”

“I had expected the slogan would be received positively, but it wasn’t,” Park said.

“I nonetheless believe that the process of selecting the slogan was meaningful because it allowed citizens to participate.”

Addressing the criticism that the slogan is nonsensical and unclear, Park said he believes it is better to leave the interpretation open to the public rather than try to define the meaning.

For example, he noted, the slogan “Incredible India” is a great one, but because its meaning is unchangeable, it can only be used for a short time.

“On the other hand, ‘I.Seoul.U’ can mean anything,” Park said. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but the city spent $700,000 on something the mayor admits has no meaning.

I guess a slogan making sense in English was not high on the priority list for Seoul’s new slogan to market the city with:

“I.Seoul.You” has been selected as the capital city’s new slogan.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced Wednesday that “I.Seoul.You” beat the two other candidates ― “Seoulmate” and “SEOULing” ― to replace its current slogan “Hi Seoul.”

“Seoulmate” won slightly more votes than “I.Seoul.You” in an online poll. However, in an on-the-spot poll held in the evening at Seoul Plaza, all nine experts and 682 out of a total 1,140 citizens voted for “I.Seoul.You,” which beat “Seoulmate” with only 232 votes.

Lee Ha-rin, a Korean student who studies philosophy in college, is the winner of the slogan contest, in which more than 16,000 people participated.

Prof. Kim Yoo-kyung of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, marketing company Playground CEO Kim Hong-tak and Prof. Seo Kyung-duk of Sungshin Women’s University were among the experts.

“It was very meaningful that Seoul citizens participated in the whole process from making to selecting the new slogan,” Seo said.

Kim Min-ki, who was in charge of the project, said that the new slogan will be used to rebrand the city globally.  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but many critics have already weighed in on how non-sensical this slogan is. Maybe the Seoul government thinks English gibberish will market well in China to get tourists from there?

For an English slogan for a city this has to be the worst I have heard.  Can anyone think of any city with a worse slogan?