Advertising,
a Mirror of the Times
Reflecting What We Wear, Eat, Live, and Want
“Advertising Reflects the Face of Its Era”
From one of the poorest nations in the world to a top-10 global economic power,
this project uses advertising as a viewfinder to reconstruct Korea’s growth and its ever-changing everyday life. Through 80 years and many generations, we hope this story helps different generations understand each other’s hardships and hopes, and find a thread of empathy.
Korea, Reflected in Advertising: Subscribe to Our 80-Year Journey
Overview of Korea’s 80 Years and Era Keywords
Korea, Reflected in Advertising
Prologue
What if we laid out the ads from 30, 50, and 70 years ago? Beyond the faded typefaces and washed-out colors, something remarkable begins to emerge, revealing clearly what people needed, what they longed for, what they feared, and what they considered beautiful.
1950-60s
Hope Amid the Ruins
Cities lay flattened by bombing, factories burned, and people went hungry. It was an era when simply surviving was fortunate enough. That’s why so many of the keywords running through this period are heartbreaking. The advertising of this era begins from that very same place.
1970s
Let’s Live Well
A nation that rose from the ashes of war began to run. Annual growth of 10 percent, a pace known as the ‘Miracle on the Han River.’ Under the slogan ‘Let’s Live Well,’ the first mass campaign made jointly by the state and its people opened this era. That growth-fueled energy is still woven throughout the advertising of the time.
Latest Blog Posts
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1970s | Sunday Is Ottogi Curry Day
“Hooray, it’s Sunday!” The ad opens with a child’s shout. In the yard of a Western-style house with a garden,…
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1970s | Acoustic Guitars, Blue Jeans, and Draft Beer
In the early 1970s, a new kind of young person appeared on Korea’s college campuses. With long hair covering their…
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1970s | The Golden Age of the Jingle
In the 1970s, children in Korea started to find coins in their pockets. As per-capita national income climbed from $253…
