That doesn’t mean what you think it means

This picture is of a glass divider in the Geoje location of the Kortalian (Korean + Italian) food chain Pastario.  I say Kortalian because they have things like Kimchi Risotto.  The reflections in the pic are from the businesses across street.  Pay special attention to the last line.

Despite the slogan, this is indeed a family restaurant.

Paris Baguette: Another Fake Brand

This is another very prominent "fake brand." Paris Baguette is a bakery chain with such a name couldn't possibly be actually French. But I decided to investigate.

Their US website sure is telling. First, the style of the site is in classic Korean web design--quirky English grammar and all. They even had a page devoted to explaining their logo and brand.

Second, the company has a history page where all the events occurred in Korea. Many fake brand shops have plaques in their stores that tell the history of the company--most of these are all in English. These are a fad among businesses and a mark of a good fake brand here in Korea.

I found this statement on a location page (at the bottom):

Paris Baguette is making a new step toward expanding in America. Our goal is to introduce our top quality bread, pastries and cakes throughout the United States. Come and enjoy the excellent taste of Paris Baguette which is leading the world in the bakery industry.

Really? Some Korean bakery chain is "leading the world in the bakery industry?" I'm pretty sure that's not true.

One thing that sets this fake brand apart from the other Korean fake brands, its very upfront about their brand. I wonder though if they really believe what they write about their brand:

The Paris Baguette image is as fresh as its bread. It moves customers silently and deeply.

Have you been silently and deeply moved by Paris Baguette's brand? I don't know about you, but I think I felt a tingle.

Bean Pole: The Grandaddy of Fake Korean Brands

Pop Quiz: What do these two people all have in common?

A. They are both British
B. They are both Academy Aware winning actors
C. They are both models for the fake Korean brand Bean Pole International.

Okay that was kind of a no-brainer. While Paltrow enjoys her British accented roles, she is American, and Miller hasn't won an Oscar.

When I first arrived I was confused when I saw the first ads for Bean Pole International. These ads starred Gwenyth Paltrow, and a Korean looking guy making statements that barely made sense, while walking on what appears to be a London streets. Was this some British company I have never heard of? But the ad looks Korean--they purposely had used a Korean actor to star opposite Paltrow.

Well, a little investigation has turned up that Bean Pole, is 100% Korean. Like Polham, it uses western people in its ads, uses an English name, and by all appearances seems to be British. See below. (The subtitles are not in the actual commercial but were added by whomever uploaded the video to Youtube).

The guy in the above commercial is Daniel Henney. He is an American of Korean descent. While few Americans have heard of him, he's huge in Korea.

Then this spring, Korean news was very excited about Prison Break's Wentworth Miller's coming to Korea. Prison Break is pretty big here in Korea, and as you can see from the video, so is Miller. He is the spokes model for Bean Pole Jeans. Below is a video from the press conference. I love the reaction when he speaks a few words of Korean. Warning: turn down the volume or you may experience hearing damage from the sound of hundreds of Korean women screaming in unison.

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External Links:
Bean Pole Homepage
Bean Pole International Homepage

Response to a critical comment on the blog:

Let me begin by saying I love Korea. I have lived here for ten months now, and have just signed a contract that will keep me here through September 2008.

I have my complaints about work, but who doesn't? We live in a fallen world with other human beings and when we are all put together, our little quirks tend to make life more difficult. This is magnified by the fact that I am working in a foreign culture.

Korea is a great country, the people are wonderful, and overall, I like it here. That being said, I will continue to offer my "fish out of water" or rather "fish in a fishbowl with a bunch of people looking at him" stories.

Below is an anonymous e-mail I received a few days ago that asked some good question that I wanted to respond to:

Why do you have a problem with "fake" Korean brands. It almost sounds like you want Koreans to still wear hanboks. Western (NOT American!) fashion is now the norm in most parts of the world so its not abnormal for Korean business owners to want to appeal to their customers by 'westerinising' their stores as THAT is what their young Korean customers prefer!

To start out with, I noted in my introduction to my "fake brands" series, that brands are inherently fake. They are an image placed on an item to make it more appealing to consumers. The image of the Marlboro man is fake.

As for Koreans and their fake brands, I am not passing a judgment, merely pointing out a funny and odd phenomenon: Koreans dressing up their products and businesses to appear fully western.

It almost sounds like you want Koreans to still wear hanboks.

I'm not at all suggesting that Koreans should be confined to hanboks. I'm merely pointing out the humor in this scene: a wholly Korean store that employs very pale, westerners to model their clothes, and whose clothes bear nonsensical phrases. Again: "bone and fragments" what does that mean?

Koreans are not alone in being fooled by these fake brands. As I noted before, I'm sure very few Americans would actually mistake Taco Bell for authentic Mexican food. However, how many people knew that Outback Steakhouse, was founded and is headquartered in Florida and has no real ties to Australia?

Polham the Justifiable

Pop Quiz:

Fill in the blank: Polham the Justifable is ___________.

a. the name of an emperor or the Byzantine Empire
b. the name of a Korean clothing brand
c. the name of one of the Avignon Pope during the 2nd Great Schism

If you chose "A" you'd be wrong! Polham the Justifiable, or just Polham is the name of one of the "fake" Korean brands. Polham is marketed as a western brand with White models, English galore in signs and slogans, but it is 100% Korean.

Below is their store in Gohyeon. This storefront used to host a Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits until it shut down and was converted to a retail clothing store in less than two weeks.

The man above stands in stark contrast to the "image" the Polham is attempting to project. Polham's clothes and marketing techniques seemed to have been ripped from the pages of Abercombie & Fitch's play book.

Pale, white, beautiful people are the norm in Polham advertising.

Seriously, what do these shirts mean:

"Bones and Fragment."
"Bones and Fragment The Mortality of the Soul."

Fake Brands: Introduction

Taking a short break from my sporadic series on Driving and Parking in Korea, I want to introduce a new topic: fake brands. Now the very idea of a brand is artificial. Its a name, symbol or whatever that is used to bring association to something. There are professionals whose only job is to create and develop "brands."

In America, we have brands that exude a certain image. The Marlboro Man portrayed rugged manliness and the Abercrombie & Fitch brand portrays young, half-naked people. These brands presented a false image, but one that was not too far from the target demographic: Marlboro cigarettes are still smoked mostly by men, and Abercrombie clothes are worn by young, half-naked people.

In Korea, brands are marketed as western, but are entirely oriental. Now, we can maybe be accused of this in America, but I think we are more aware. For example we know that Taco Bell isn't really Mexican and that Olive Garden isn't really Italian. However, some of these Korean brands look real enough to fool even the most discerning consumers. They have ads mostly in English, have white models--even spokespeople, and Western sounding names.

Below is what I would call an "authentic brand." This brand is undeniably Korean. The ad is from a Korean company, the product is uniquely Korean (a fridge with the sole purpose of storing kimchi), and the actors are Korean. (Don't get me started about their slogan though: "Well-being life."