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Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Sidewalk Marketing

Downtown Gwangju is bustling, busy, loud, and colorful – a sensory overload.  Honestly, sometimes Mark has to remind me to just focus on the boring, old sidewalk, to give my synapses a break!
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All of the stores are vying for patrons from the crowd that streams past them.  The stores have all spilled outside to make base-camp on the sidewalk.  They have staff equipped with microphones, cute outfits, free gifts, and scripted promises about all of the wonderful merchandise inside. 
These are times I am glad that I don’t know the Korean language very well, I can just past peacefully by without feeling bad for ignoring them.
(This would be a good time to mention how AWARE I am at how POLITE we Americans are.  Here, they don’t feel bad for ignoring each other, because that’s what EVERYONE does.)
This style of marketing is particularly popular with cosmetic stores.  Below you will see lots of cute young ladies, dressed in skirts, sporting microphones, baskets, and free gifts.
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These girls win my favorite outfit contest.  In particular I am a fan of the bell-bottom leg warmers.
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This cutie is standing under a balloon arch, kitten on shoulder (don’t worry, it’s a stuffed animal), speaking of the treasures inside.  How could you pass her by?
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She brought someone in folks … the passing of the basket signifies success!

Sweet apron, free gifts, baskets, of course a skirt, and coupons in hand.
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And for the impromptu advertising, you’ve always got the stock ladder and a megaphone! 
You just gotta bring them in!

2 comments:

  1. Does anybody else think how kind of sad this americanization of an asian culture looks? The mixture of them and us is both cute and sad. Almost frightening how powerfully we've affected whole cultures.

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  2. So hurts my head - I can only imagine being there in that visual cacophony!

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