A group representing farmers said the ad was “suggestive” and “inappropriate,” and that it “sexually objectified” garlic, reports the Associated Press.
A rural South Korean town known for its local “Hongsan” garlic, is catching flak for an ad campaign pitching garlic that some say is obscene and has “sexually objectified” garlic.
The stink is over a 30-second video showing a woman suggestively rubbing the thigh of a garlic-headed man named “Hongsan”. According to the translation from the Associated Press, the woman is saying things like “very thick” and “hard” to apparently describe the quality of the local garlic.
AP added that the campaign film also parodies a scene from the 2004 hit Korean movie titled “Once Upon a Time in High School.”
According to the report, the ad was largely unnoticed by the public until it was shown on electronic billboards at a Seoul express bus terminal as well as a downtown street in Daejeon last month ahead of the garlic’s release.
The translated title, 단단하고 알이 굵어 is “It’s hard and the grain is thick” according to Google Translate.
As Hyung-Jim Kim reports in AP:
“We can’t repress our astonishment,” said a joint statement issued by the local branches of two major farmers’ organizations — the Korean Peasants League and the Korean Women Peasants Association. “The video offended the people who watched it and dealt a big blow to the image of the agricultural product that farmers have laboriously grown.”
Calling the video “suggestive” and “inappropriate,” the statement said it “sexually objectified” garlic.
The farmers’ groups asked Hongseong to apologize, punish those responsible for the video production and formulate steps on how to prevent similar incidents. Shin Ji Youn, an official at the Korean Women Peasants Association, said the farmers’ groups asked Hongseong to respond to their requests by August 10.
Hongseong officials announced that they’ve pulled the video from their YouTube channel and that it stopped airing it on the billboards last week.
Oh, baby
Carry on.
