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Koreans deservedly don’t have a high reputation for creativity, but as you can read by clicking on the image above, desperate measures called for an innovative advertising solution by Home Plus in Chamsil earlier this year. Did any readers happen to pass through the station and see it for themselves? What did you think?
Anybody that shares my interest in Korean advertising, make sure to head down to Busan from Tuesday October the 21st to Friday the 24th for the Ad Stars Busan International Advertising Festival 2008, according to the website “the world’s first convergent online/offline advertising festival”. I’ll be attending in the mornings, and would be happy to grab a coffee with you at Starbucks next door!
01/10/2008 at 9:45 am Permalink
I saw this kind of advertising when I lived in San Francisco. They would use the subway walls like this as a canvas. It is really affective!
Also I think Koreans are very creative people. And we could get into a whole discussion about this
01/10/2008 at 10:50 am Permalink
Joy,
I’d be the first to agree that Koreans can be creative people and that indeed many are, but it has to be said that unfortunately the stress on studying for the University Entrance Exam (수능시험) from the age of about 13 and the rote-learning methodologies emphasized in so doing does make it really difficult for creative Koreans to stand out and/or find an appropriate outlet for their work. Universities do provide both, but I think it’s very difficult to suddenly become creative in any field at 19 and 20 after having it ruthlessly drilled out of you as a teenager, and moreover that window is only open for a few short years before they enter Korean workplaces, which are notorious for their uniformity, discouragement of disagreement with superiors, and consensus-based decision making. Not unrelated is the 24-28 months of military service that all Korean males must undergo either.
You might be interested in some of the art done by Koreans on this site: much of it is very creative, but it’s difficult not to notice that the vast majority of the artists featured in it ultimately left Korea to study overseas and/or pursue their art careers there (and not just because it’s an English website!).
01/10/2008 at 3:45 pm Permalink
I have to agree, the 수능 is soul-crushing . . . but there’s worse to come!
Back when I was teaching, I had a number of students who were very interested in art, including some who were undoubtedly talented. But in order to pursue art at a college level, guess what? They all attended art classes at their school and art 학원 . . . where they were taught exactly what styles would appear on most of the entrance exams for art programs. Now, undoubtedly learning classical art and figure drawing is a useful and important foundation for training artists of all kinds – but the Korean orientation was once again towards gaining admission to a program instead of truly fostering talent. The students complained endlessly about the boring still life pictures they always had to draw, but to no avail.
I have to say though,I don’t think it is necessarily that hard to start working creatively in the arts even at more advanced ages (although it certainly helps if you’re encouraged to think creatively from a young age) – but I do think that the intense amount of social monitoring for conformity in Korean life makes it difficult. On the other hand, there are definitely some very creative communities that I hope will continue to grow . . .
01/10/2008 at 5:47 pm Permalink
Indeed! Jamsil station was quiet trippy for a while there last year. The Home Plus (Tesco) advertising actually started on the platform and it was like walking down an aisle as you came up off the platform to the turnstiles.
More importantly Home Plus, when it finally opened, had a good selection of imported, Home Plus brand and Korean goods.
Even More importantly the Gelato kiosk in the basement 2 level has really yummy lemon-mint flavour gelato.
Mmmmmm.
01/10/2008 at 7:28 pm Permalink
I’ve noticed that Koreans in the military, whether they be Korean-Americans in the US Army, KATUSAs, or Korean military, tend to always seek a textbook solution when confronted with a problem rather than showing any level of initiative, creativity, or improvisation. The benefit of such thinking is that they are eager to seek others’ successful precedents with which to model their own solutions.
Having said that, I can only assume such advertising has been observed in Japan or the US and then mimicked by Home Plus.
01/10/2008 at 8:25 pm Permalink
Ever since Homeplus was acquired by Tesco, they’ve had a much improved selection of foreign (well, Tesco brand) foods. The selection at some of them is inconsistent, but better than many places. As a plus for diabetics, they have one of the largest selections of sugar-free candies and snacks.
02/10/2008 at 10:20 am Permalink
Thanks for all the comments guys: sounds like HomePlus has a much better selection than my local MegaMart!
Gomushin Girl, yeah, I thought of mentioning art hagwons with my first comment too, and I’ve had exactly the same experience of teaching art students and hearing about their complaints. Like you say, figure drawing and so on is a useful and important foundation for art students, but those sort of things do always seem to be the things emphasized in the advertisements for hagwons, seemingly stressing to the parents that pay for them how useful they are for passing the exams and nothing else. Naive of me to think otherwise of course, but I did think that art hagwons at least would have some room for creative expression by their students.
I’m probably too harsh-sounding implying that it’s not possible to be creative later in (Korean) life though, and I’d be especially interested in hearing more about those creative communities you describe.
02/10/2008 at 11:44 am Permalink
Mark,
just to tease, I think the word “military” might also be a clue to the problem there^^ Often it’s not that Koreans cannot be or are not creative, but that there are strong social constraints on expressing outside-the-box thinking. And my guess is that the Korean military command structure does not have kind treatment in store for a junior officer or enlisted man who comes up with a better, more creative plan than his CO.
Ultimately, I think that artistic and creative communities are self-selecting in Korea, which unfortunately also means a certain loss of creativity in general life. The other aspect to it is that a lot of people engaged in artistic endeavors and communities are involved more in “re-creation” of “traditional” art forms rather than necessarily engaging in new ones. The perceived loss of traditional culture has meant that singers, embroiderers, costume designers, certain genre of painters, etc. are still involved not necessarily in taking their art forms in new directions, but in re-discovering a static past. This is especially difficult in areas like pansori where the government has actually stifled experimentation in favor of a very limited idea of preservation. The highest level singers, for example, are generally forbidden to improvise or alter songs if they receive government funding.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t people experimenting and coming up with new forms and methods . . . just that there’s pressure to do other things first here. But any stroll through Insadong, Anguk, Bukcheon, Samcheongdong, Karosugil, . . .heck most neighborhoods in Seoul! will show a very healthy number of galleries. And some of these communities are very strongly linked with each other: Tea ceremony people know potters who know painters who know embroiderers who know hanbok designers who know singers who know x, etc.