FOR MEN AND BY WOMEN: HOW WOMEN ARE PORTRAYED IN SOUTH KOREAN ALCOHOL COMMERCIALS

Alcohol commercials are a universal phenomenon. In Asian countries such as South Korea however, given the cultural and societal emphasis on traditional gender roles, the way alcohol is sold and consumed differs from other countries. Commercials often show the consumer how the producers believe people will use their product in a natural environment or otherwise how they want the consumer to view this certain product. This paper, therefore, analyzes different alcohol commercials in order to answer the following research question. How are South Korean women portrayed in Korean alcohol commercials and how does this differ from cultural and societal reality? The gender differences that can be noticed in all of these researches contain an important message within them, which is that gender inequality in South Korea is still an ongoing issue. Through commercials in which these female actors are portrayed as if they are truly part of the Korean culture, there is a dissonance between the...Show moreAlcohol commercials are a universal phenomenon. In Asian countries such as South Korea however, given the cultural and societal emphasis on traditional gender roles, the way alcohol is sold and consumed differs from other countries. Commercials often show the consumer how the producers believe people will use their product in a natural environment or otherwise how they want the consumer to view this certain product. This paper, therefore, analyzes different alcohol commercials in order to answer the following research question. How are South Korean women portrayed in Korean alcohol commercials and how does this differ from cultural and societal reality? The gender differences that can be noticed in all of these researches contain an important message within them, which is that gender inequality in South Korea is still an ongoing issue. Through commercials in which these female actors are portrayed as if they are truly part of the Korean culture, there is a dissonance between the truth and what people want to believe. People want to believe that, as a woman in South Korea society, they can take part in any activity they want. Truthfully, however, they are portrayed through these commercials as a marketing object that sells and as someone who is in any case still the inferior half of society.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

FOR MEN AND BY WOMEN: HOW WOMEN ARE PORTRAYED IN SOUTH KOREAN ALCOHOL COMMERCIALS