Creativity or dirty commercialism? Absolut Vodka Korea cashes in on anti-president protest
The new advertisement inspired by the candelit rally against Park stirs up displeasure among South Koreans
By Park Jae-hyuk
The new advertisement of Absolut Vodka, which depicted an image of a candlelit rally as the shape of a vodka bottle, has caused controversy among Korean customers.
The world-famous vodka brand owned by Pernod Ricard has disclosed the new Korean version of an advertisement on its official Absolut Vodka Korea Facebook page, Saturday.
Its copy wrote, “THE FUTURE IS YOURS TO CREATE” on top and “ENJOY RESPONSIBLY” at the bottom, with an aerial view picture of candlelit rally participants marching through Gwanghwamun Square, downtown Seoul.
Absolut Vodka has made advertisements visualising the shape of the vodka bottle, especially adopting images that represent a certain city or a country.
For example, the Boston version visualised tea boxes floating on the sea, symbolising the Boston Tea Party in 18th century. The vodka producer adopted a picture of the Parthenon for Athens and yellow cabs for New York.
When it made a previous Seoul version, Absolut Vodka adopted an image of Korea’s traditional kite with a bottle-shaped hole in the middle.