Bang Bang With Han Ji-hye?
Maybe it’s a sign that I need to take a break from the blog this weekend, for the instant I saw the picture of actress and model Han Ji-hye (한지혜) on the left (source), this advertisement on the right with American singer Mark McGraph came to mind, a pretty reliable find if one types in “sexist advertisement” in an image search (as one does).
The picture comes from a news report about Han Ji-hye’s new year-long modeling contract with the Korean clothes company Bang Bang (뱅뱅), a name which also never fails to bring certain images to mind, but ones which I’d wager the company is completely unaware of given the absence of any tounge-in-cheek references to the double-entendre in any of their advertisements or commercials so far (most recently with Ha Ji-won {하지원} and Kwon Sang-woo {권상우}, the former of whom I guess Han Ji-hye is replacing). Meanwhile, the advertisement with Mark McGrath you can read about on this Univeristy of Minnesota “Feminist Film and Media Studies” course blog here, and while many of the students’ interpretations of sexism in various advertisements are entirely in their own heads (this one is so far off the mark, it’s almost a satire), I concur with their basic (if somewhat unoriginal) take on this one. Pretty asinine of Candies to post the same ad in men’s and women’s magazines though!
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