12 Bizarre Korean Product Advertisements

Korean Store Signs On of the first things you notice when you visit Korea is the bizarre signage posted all over the place. In a surreal, crazy combination of animation and childhood nightmares, its often hard to figure what is being sold or promoted on account of the bizarre creatures featured in the artwork. Is it a monster? The aftermath of some freak nuclear accident, perhaps? Or is it a friendly animated hero wanting to be our friend?

A lot of questions were left open in my limited western mind; what exactly was it that I was seeing? Let’s journey on to the heart of Seoul Korea in order to try and make sense of crazy Korean store artwork.

Chicken Eye

Korean Store Sign For some reason the chicken mascot for this Korean restaurant seems to be missing an eye. Is that due to the farming practices or did it get into a street brawl with the mascot from a competing chicken restaurant? Is it some kind of subtle nod to a secret ingredient? Are we going to be eating that missing eye if we dine here? Is the chicken served with a waffle cone in some botched Korean attempt to emulate Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles? So many questions for so much delicious chicken…

The Worker

Korean Store Sign This building might be a nuclear power plant. I’m not sure. Maybe that’s why his thumb has mutated to larger than his own head?

Korean Store Sign What kind of snack food do Korean DJ’s like to eat? Coco Roman’s of course. Better news yet: it’s been upgraded!

The Worker Part Two

Korean Store Sign Why are the workers in South Korea so damn happy? Is it because they aren’t in North Korea? This kooky character is not only defying gravity but is also oblivious that he’s about to careen directly into a rotating wind turbine blade. Look out for that blade little friend! Look out!

The Chicken House

Korean Store Sign More crazy chicken restaurant pictures. If the proportions are right, then this man is eating from a plate of chicken the size of a floor model television. Judging from the look on his face I’m not sure if he’s planning to eat the chicken so much as assault it in some way. Let’s hope the live chickens on hand can somehow intervene, they clearly know something’s not right.

Firefight!

Korean Store Sign This may look innocent enough, but it’s actually part of South Korea’s campaign to rid their streets of homeless people. Ha! Just joking! I hope!

Mutant Head Barbie

Korean Store Sign Now this is where the girls in the previous picture need to be aiming those fire extinguishers. Can you imagine if this pair were 50 feet tall and attacking your village?

Mishap

Korean Store Sign I think the funnier and cutier the animated character is on a Seoul worker site, the more potential there must be for a horrific accident.

Mishap Part Two

Korean Store Sign Using the cuteness = danger theory, I’m guessing this little guy works in a coal mine.

Even More Chicken

Korean Store Sign This fucking guy again! Where are the other chickens? What did you do to them, you bastard?!?! Quit looking at that chicken like you’re going to rape it!

Wonder Woman

Korean Store Signs Even Wonder Woman doesn’t look as happy as an average Korean cartoon factory worker, though she does promise “Style Changing” for those of the English speaking persuasion.

Watch Your Step

Korean Store Sign I’m including this one just on the hope that it’s an advertisement for shoes or something. But judging from the fact that there appears to be a series of rules underneath the feet, I’m afraid this is actually a needlessly elaborate tutorial on how to use an escalator. How much information do you really need to safely use an escalator?

4 comments on “12 Bizarre Korean Product Advertisements”

Klederson "Acid" Bueno said on October 15, 2010:

Dude, i do have to disagree with you. Your analisys is shallow, racist and cleary without any bases. You probably want to learn more about their culture to perform an analisys ( EVEN IF YOU WANT TO DO A FUNY ONE ). My point is, your article are very superficial maybe next time you can do your homework before write something like that. You can be funny and make jokes without sound so ... never mind.

Steve Austin said on October 18, 2010:

Lame. Racist.

Richard said on October 19, 2010:

Your analysis sucks, and is racist as stated above. What the signs are really for: 1. Chicken feet restaurant. Korean restaurants often use extremely stylized and/or cute representations of what you're eating. A lot funnier than you analysis. 2. It's for a package delivery service. 3. That's a member of a Korean pop group, not just some random DJ. Again, if you bother figuring some shit out, funnier than your analysis. 4. Korean electric company help line. 5. Again a crazy representation of what you're eating done in the animation style of a popular online cartoon. 6. Basically telling you that you can trust Korea's fire fighters. Not really so bad. 7. Those things are fucking creepy, and they're in just about every subway station lingerie store. That's funnier and crazier than what you said. 8. Dude is telling you not to go in or you'll get hurt. 9. He's near Incheon international airport telling you not to be an ass while you're driving. 10. This one is just stupid. 11. That one is for a hair salon. And is made much more ridiculous by the fact that it's Wonder Woman advertising for it. I've seen better, like the Puma logo with a perm for a hair shop named Pama, which is the Konglish word for perm. Which anyone who has been to Korea can tell you, any woman who is over like 50 has. 12. That sign is telling you not to walk down the escalator so you don't fall down and hurt yourself or someone else like a jackass.

michelle said on October 24, 2010:

Funny, I recognize like all the places where these pictures come from since I grew up in Korea. When taken out of context, as you have done, these pictures seem pretty ridiculous, I must admit. Even though they may still seem ridiculous when they are taken in context, they obviously have caught your attention for long enough to take a picture, made you think about what you were seeing, and gotten at least half of their point across to your limited, non-Korean speaking, Western mind. Isn't that what signs and advertisements are for?

12 Bizarre Korean Product Advertisements

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