Too many foreign models

When you look at advertising in Korea you may be struck by the prevalence of white faces hawking all manner of products, especially makeup and clothing.  Underwear models in particular are nearly always white. Are South Koreans truly dazzled by whiteness, trapped in a colonial mindset? Do they just enjoy making whites work for them for a change? Is this all good or bad, ultimately? One reader of the Munhwa Ilbo made her voice heard, and we bring you the translation.

In the pamphlets and other promotional materials for department stores and every kind of credit card, almost every model is a foreigner. The same for child models. It might not matter for the brands that originate from overseas, but the products manufactured in our country are also all using foreign models.

The fliers for advertising sales are also bursting with foreign models. This leads to an extravagant waste of foreign currency and is the reason that the numbers of our own models are cut short.

These are the things we wear and eat, so shouldn’t we have them adapted to our way of life? They’re not being exported to other countries, and even our traditional cultural products are having foreign models appearing for them. When I see these kinds of advertisements and fliers it hurts my pride.

Recently I heard that a lot of Russian women are coming to our country and that their modeling fees are cheap. Of course from the perspective of the person selling things hiring thin and low-paid foreign beauties is a good strategy to cut costs.

Even so, when you take the long view the result could be to gain something small and lose something great. This is said to be a competitive society, but how about deciding on a fixed ceiling above which no more foreign models can be used in advertisements and so on?