On Korean TV Commercials Part I

Different culture among countries set different notions of what being appropriate means. In term of TV commercials, each country has its own set of values as what appropriate ads are. In Korea where all TV stations even state-owned ones air TV commercials was something of interest for me in the first place. As someone from a country who used to know that its state-owned TV (TVRI) does not fully air any commercials, the airing of commercials on state-owned TV stations is something that captured my attention during my stay in Korea.

That is not all. Another thing that struck me was how strikingly different the attitudes of acceptance on some TV commercials between Indonesians and Koreans are, e.g. on alcoholic beverages and cigarettes. As long as I noticed, there are no cigarettes commercials on Korean TV, but then there are a bunch of commercials on alcoholic beverages like Hite, OB Lager, and Achim Isel. Interestingly, both kinds of commercials exist in Indonesian TVs. What interests me is not just the mere airing or not airing of these kinds of commercials, rather how they are being portrayed in both societies. It is considered inappropriate and unlawful in Indonesia to make commercials of alcoholic beverages by portraying the scenes people drinking them. On the other hand, the completely different portrayal is visible in Korea.

The alcoholic beverages commercials do protray the scenes of people drinking; suggested by some cultural traits that directly associate and indicate how Korean society's drinking culture is. For instance, the OB Lager TV ad vividly described how a companion of employees notably from some kind of blue-collar workers gather together drinking. In addition, one scene showed that they did a toast and put the glass one after another so as to portray that drinking culture associated itself with the sense of frienship. The above scene is acceptable and seemingly lawful since Korean society has traditionally has this kind of culture.

(Too bad, I do not know whether there does exist law that permits this kinds of ads.) However, what I want to say here is that this would be a completely our of comprehension in Indonesia where drinking culture does not embrace all cultures in the country.

In short, on Indonesian TV commercials, only the brand of the alcoholic beverages and the scenes protraying something that could associate the product are allowed, but not the picture of the alcoholic beverages themselves let alone the scene of drinking them.