The era of television has seen some crazy and innovative advertisements throughout decades, with ad films that tend to stick with you for years, but this advertisement from a dairy company might rub you the wrong way, as it did with a lot of its viewers.
An advertisement from a dairy company in South Korea has sparked a wave of criticism because of its depiction of women as cows. Yes, you heard that right! The bizarre ad was uploaded by the biggest dairy company in South Korea, Seoul Milk.
The advertisement shows a man who is wandering in a field and secretly filming a group of women who are doing yoga and drinking water from a stream, seemingly like a cow! The ad further shows the man accidentally stepping on a twig and startling the women, who bizarrely turn into cows.
The ad went viral on social media and sparked a huge wave of backlash and criticism over the 52-second clip. People said that the ad was sexist, and also compared the behavior of the man in the video to “molka”, which is the illegal act of secretly filming people.
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Due to the hate surrounding the ad, the South Korean company had to remove it from social media and issue an official apology. Seoul Milk's parent company Seoul Dairy Cooperative, in an apology, said, “We sincerely apologise to everyone who felt uncomfortable with the milk commercial released on 29th last month.”
The apology note, which was shared on social media, further reads, “We are accepting this matter seriously and will conduct an internal review, and take extra care to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. We bow our heads in apology.”
According to the Korea Herald, this is not the first time that Seoul Milk has sparked a controversy as it had earlier received backlash for making nude female models spray yoghurt on each other at an event to promote the launch of its new products in 2003.
