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Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Thank goodness for that

Yeosu Expo 2012 logoI’m not sure what audience BBC World TV is aimed at, and I’m not sure that the BBC know either, which is why it is so bland. And because the channel is done on a budget, the programmes are in part funded by advertisements, and the content is padded out by trailers and is endlessly repeated — which is why the advertisements become increasingly mind-numbing.

On a recent holiday, in order to keep up with current affairs, we tuned in to BBC World channel on the hotel cable TV most days. We got to know the advertisements pretty well. An incredibly irritating promotional video for Incredible India ran three or four times an hour; a pastel blue advert for Korean Air ran two or three times an hour; and a puzzling “Towards Yeosu. Towards the Sea of the Future” advert probably twice an hour. Quite an advertising spend between the two Korean organisations.

The Yeosu commercial was of course for Expo 2012. And watching the advertisement you could be forgiven for thinking that Yeosu had already been selected to host the Expo, and were investing in some rather uncharacteristic advanced marketing. It was not until I got home that I realised that the choice of city was still undecided.

Anyway, the choice is now made, and the advertising clearly met its objectives. Their commercial will now no doubt make way for another repetitious advert.

First round of votes:

Korea: 68
Morocco: 59
Poland: 13

Second round:

Korea: 77
Morocco: 63

Congratulations to Yeosu. I hope I’ll be able to get there. The Marmot spent a weekend there recently for one of the monthly Seoul Magazine features, and made it sound rather nice.

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