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Infiltrating North Korea Part 11: North Korean Style Advertising
Billboards are a ubiquitous presence in most any major city. Depending on local ordnances, they may fill the entire side of a building, dominate cityscapes, or simply appear on the roadside in a variety of shapes and sizes.
The city of Pyongyang is no exception. The only difference is that there is only one product being advertised here: communism.
Propaganda is the evil step cousin of advertising and the North Koreans embrace it as eagerly as an account executive on Madison Avenue pitching for the Coca Cola business.
Although there's certainly nowhere quite like Times Square in Pyongyang, there is hardly a spot in the capital where one is not exposed to a billboard or mural extolling the virtues of communism, North Korea, or either one of the Kims. And just in case someone is blind, a fleet of propaganda vans with speakers mounted atop drive around the city pumping out the latest rhetoric.
Naturally, the state controls the mass media as well, jamming incoming foreign transmissions and making it technically impossible to tune into any other broadcast except for the official state one. This, in part, is controlled by producing radios with only a single FM button and absolutely no dial! I had one of these North Korean specialties in my hotel room and sat staring at it for the longest time; it was simply impossible to change the station and it left me feeling completely powerless.
Gallery: North Korea: Propaganda
In addition, there is no such thing as the internet in North Korea or cell phones. Anyone entering the country had to leave their cell phones with customs officials who kept them locked up and inaccessible for the entirety of our stay. And I certainly didn't get a copy of USA Today under my hotel room door.
Surprisingly, being cut off from the outside world was actually somewhat enjoyable for the five days I spent in North Korea. I quite liked the freedom of not being tied to my cell phone and email and relished in the ignorant bliss of not being exposed to troubling international news. This isolationist cocoon where the state controls everything you hear and see, however, would not have been fun for too long. Living an entire life under such conditions would be hell.
There was one brief glimmer of hope, however. One day when driving around the outskirts of Pyongyang we passed a billboard doing what billboards do throughout the rest of the world: selling a product. Someone has managed to erect North Korea's first (and only?) billboard, and as you can see, it's advertising brand new automobiles.
And that, folks, is the slippery slope of capitalism.
Yesterday: The Followers of Kim
Tomorrow: A North Korean History Lesson about the U.S.S. Pueblo
Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, Business, News, Infiltrating North Korea
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
gvg Mar 31st 2008 6:50PM
I've only just found this series, that's why I'm only now commenting.
I think I read somewhere the bill-board shows cars that (in the future?) are made in North-Korea. It was part of a deal between North-Korea and South-Korea, where the latter would outsource manufacturing cars to North-Korea to help the economy.
I don't know if it has (or ever will) become reality.
And the meaning of the words on the bill-board was along the lines of: look what amazing cars we produce in North-Korea.
Still propaganda.
John Sep 27th 2008 1:19AM
gvg is right about the billboard. it's an "ad" pitching for peace ("pyeonghwa" in korean) motors, a unification church-owned joint automotive business venture between the two koreas.
more information can be found at the following links:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/unif/Unif58.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyonghwa_Motors
toks Apr 9th 2009 12:40PM
Yea, interesting that the Unification Church is attempting to introduce some form of capitalism into north korea.
zima3000 Dec 16th 2007 11:07AM
When I was in Moscow in 1980, I saw billboards advertising Aeroflot (the only air company they had at the time) and Sberbank (the only bank they had). I have since asked probably a million people, including many Russians, what was the point of that advertising but no one was able to explain that to me.
If the SU is any indication, regular people in North Korea probably can't just walk into a store and buy a car as new cars are few and allocated according to a government plan. And that makes the ads your saw just as mysterious as those that I've seen :) Part of the whole smoke-and-mirrors thing, perhaps?
Generally, when I'm reading the Infiltrating, I often find myself nodding in agreement - so many things you describe seem to be literally copied from the Soviet Union of 1960 - 1970. Radios without dials, Children's Palaces, huge faces of the leaders on every building, mass sporting events, even the uniforms of the traffic girls (yep, they had them in the SU in the 60s) - amazing. I'm used to reading about these things or seeing them in B&W movies and you've walked among them just recently! Sir, you're a time traveler! :) And thanks again.
Gag Halfrunt Dec 16th 2007 7:18PM
I've read that the purpose of advertisements in the USSR was to give Western visitors the impression of a modern and prosperous country. I imagine that the Pyonghwa car advertisement is intended to serve a similar purpose, not promoting the cars themselves but presenting North Korea to foreign visitors as a country "open for business".
Neil Dec 17th 2007 12:22AM
Thanks, Zima. Yes, that's indeed the main reason I wanted to visit north korea -- to go back in time. And, it was well worth it!