If you’re reading this, you’re concerned about gender roles in Korea. And with any luck, it’s been a while since you’ve come across any blatant gendered marketing here. Maybe, because the notion is just no longer sustainable, especially when so many boy-bands are now using “girly” aegyo.
So, when this delivery truck passed my daughters and I as we were coming home from school last week, I was off like a flash. After all, my eldest daughter did say she wanted to try walking by herself sometime…
Alas, it wasn’t really gendered marketing: as my panic-stricken daughters were catching up, wailing something about abandonment, I realized there was no real difference between the captions “Men’s wise choice: make/gain tax deductions” and “Women’s smart choice: increase your assets.” (And the puns only work in English too; but it’s still a very clever post title, yes?) And both had the same sub-text on the right:
That reads “Tax reduction’s smart choice, get tax deductions on your assets,” and in the yellow box “Pension savings account, tax-reduction long-term fund, IRP (personal retirement pension).”
Ultimately then, while they did get my attention, they were just another lame example of sex sells.
Or not. Because with thinking about the crotch or buttocks of your heart’s desire, comes a deep concern about managing your retirement funds, right?
Reminding me of the fruits of those loins though, might have been a little more successful in persuading me to think more about my long-term future. Like what to do when my daughters start pretending not to know me as I snap away at the next yahan ad…
Related Posts:
- Korean Sociological Image #76: Gendered Innocence and “The Nation’s First Love”
- Korean Sociological Image #82: Pink it and shrink it!
- Korean Sociological Image #19: Gee, Gee, Gee…Using Girls’ Generation to Study Gender Roles in Korean Advertising
The Grand Narrative 