Korean Sociological Image #2: Son Dambi’s Corset
I admit, the choice of an attractive woman again is probably a mere indulgence on my part. But this commercial symbolizes so much about what’s problematic with women’s body images here that it simply proved too good to pass up!
The product advertised is “Today’s Tea” (오늘의 차) produced by Lotte Chilsung (롯데칠성음료), and the commercial features women (and, in a humorous fashion, some men) seeing how closely they resemble body parts of singer Son Dam-bi (손담비) by standing behind pictures of them. In a sense, it’s to be applauded for making the “Drink this and you’ll have a body like her’s” message more explicit than usual, and in a different context I’d actually quite like that concept of using the pictures itself, although I’m a bit nonplussed by Dam-bi replacing the woman with exactly the same body at 0:08 in this one (is the idea that Dam-bi has a more attractive face than her or something? I beg to differ):
Okay, the symbolism in chronological order. First, with these schoolgirls:
( Source for all screenshots: Paranzui )
No, I’m not going to bemoan these girls for wanting to look like Son Dam-bi – what girl wouldn’t – and they may be well aware that those pictures of her navel are likely to have been photoshopped too (see below), although *sigh* I doubt it. But still, place the picture in the context of an education culture that promotes health food to 8 year-old children because it will help with their “S-lines” and “V-lines,” and even if I didn’t have two daughters myself then it would still make me feel a little uncomfortable.
Did her waist really warrant photoshopping in those pictures in the commercial? (source)
And speaking of “lines”…
Yes, that’s Son Dam-bi’s supposed “Belly-line” (벨리라인) being highlighted (although you might be forgiven for confusing it with an S-line), and even infomercials in the guise of news reports about the commercial do not decry the addition of yet another line in addition to the plethora already used to describe (mostly) women’s bodies but play up the funky new term instead.
Again, context is important: seeing the terms as simple equivalents of their (much fewer) English counterparts – say, “hourglass figure” – belies the extent to which they’ve become integral parts of popular culture here, one the one hand still being body types to be aspired to but on the other being used for numerous things very far removed from normal women’s actual bodies…would you, for instance, sell a phone with a name including a term that usually means “Tits and Ass” to most of your target market?
( Yes, it’s the Wondergirls (원더걸스) again…noticing a trend here? )
Which finally brings us to the corset again:
The use of a corset here is undoubtedly because of Son Dam-bi’s notoriety in wearing them recently (see above), and I’m not against that particular one per se, but given their history as a means of molding women into desired hourglass figures, particularly in the Victorian era, then it proves a somewhat ironic indictment of everything done to encourage much the same to Korean women today, as I’ve explained.
Given all that, then it seems almost churlish to also mention the relative lack of legislation over false advertising in Korea also, which means that there is little to stop advertisers claiming that losing weight is easy, simply and painless provided that consumers choose their company’s pills, crèmes and/or lotions…and, indeed drinks. For more on that, see my analysis of the journal article “Content Analysis of Diet Advertisements: A Cross-National Comparison of Korean and U.S. Women’s Magazines” (Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, October 2006) here, and bearing in mind the context of a culture that generally disdains critical thinking also, which in turn discourages Korean women from challenging advertisers’ claims with the appropriate skepticism, then the result is that Korean women overwhelmingly prefer passive methods of losing weight to exercising. I hate to generalize, but there really will be all too many women who think that eating less and drinking this is all that they have to do.
The “34-쏙-34,” by the way, is a play on women’s “vital statistics” (bust/waist/hip measurements), but being a sound that doesn’t really have an equivalent in English, the “쏙,” or “ssok,” in it is difficult to translate (indeed, I can’t find it in any dictionary). Imagine saying “sssok” as you do a slight hand movement to represent a woman’s (hourglass) waist though, and you get the idea.
Update: See here for an interesting alternate marketing campaign of supposed “waistline-reducing” tea drinks to Japanese salarymen!
(For all posts in the “Korean Sociological Image” series, see here)
So if I drink this, my belly line will look better? Or not? This post doesn’t really help me decide whether or not to buy 오늘의 차, no offense.
I agree with you on one thing for sure: there is something refreshing about the direct blatant clarity of this commercial’s message.
None taken, as that wasn’t the intention!
As for if the drink will make that…let’s say general region of your body look better then, presumably that’s the idea, although I’m afraid you’ll have to look elsewhere for explanations as to how exactly!
I am a little disappointed as well… I look to this blog for guidance with many of my life’s crucial decisions. I am now in complete disarray. Should I drink the tea or buy a corset? Help a brother out.
Hmmm…perhaps I should put a disclaimer like Robert Koehler’s on my blog somewhere…?
This kind of advertising must really lead to some serious obsessive compulsive disorders when it comes to watching your figure, weight and so on. Even myself, a guy, feel mentally drained from it. :-o
I had seen the ad and had wondered what 쏙 meant… I was guessing waist was the context; perhaps, instead the pleasing view of the waist / waist area?
I wonder how long it would take for girls to *stop* drinking the tea of the day if enough guys said, “Oh, you’re drinking XYZ? Thanks, but I’ll find someone more comfortable with their body. Anyeong!”…
Chris–sorry, my explanation of 쏙w asn’t very good, but in my defense I never heard of it before seeing this ad, and my wife, whose English is fluent, can’t explain it other than then by making hand movements like over a waist as she says it. She did also, say though, that it’s almost always used for waists.
Meanwhile, I doubt many guys will be making that particular complaint unfortunately…
perhaps we can agree that it is the onomatopoeia for the sound of a waist being cinched?
would there also be similar advertisements for men? like, tea drink for nice muscles sort of idea…
You’re probably too young to have sung “…36-24-36, what a winning hand… She’s a brick – house…” in the school hallway.
Sonagi,
Not me.. that song is *canonical!*
And James… “mere indulgence?”
Yep, for sure! ;-)
What I don’t get is how the one type of tea advertises that it will make your face V-shaped.
Boy, when they find an “it girl” they really give her a workout, huh? I had never heard of her until a couple months ago when she joined that new Pussycat Doll clone. Now she’s everywhere. A little shop across the bus terminal has, like, three different posters and cardboard cutouts of her. Needless to say I don’t think she’s that special.
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