Kim-vertising

Hot on the heels of other fallen dictators and terrorist leaders who have recently died, we have the passing of North Korea's "Dear Leader" seeing out the year (although there is still about a week and half left this year for Ahmadinejad, Mugabe or Castro if they want to join the list).

Following my previous blog posts on Bin Laden's Legacy in Advertising and Gaddafi in Advertising, it's only fair to look at "faminist" Kim Jong-il's image as used in advertising (primarily print and posters here).

International Society for Human Rights (ISHR)
Ad Agency: Scholz & Friends, Berlin, Germany, 2009.

Celebrating 60 years of the ISHR promoting human rights, the anniversary cakes were "shared" with various leaders of dictatorships around the world, including Kim.

ISHR
Ad Agency: Ogilvy, Frankfurt, Germany. 2010

The ISHR more recently also had a campaign showing world dictators scared of the modern mouse. This particular ad is poorly photoshopped but still conveys the intended message.

S-K Bedding & Mattresses
"Who says there's no rest for the wicked?"
Ad Agency: Publicis, South Africa, 2004.

SK Bedding and Publicis used North Korea Freedom Day, April 28, 2004, to help promote their product.

Nulaid Eggs
"History's produced a lot of bad eggs.
Thankfully, ours are always good."
Ad Agency: The Jupiter Drawing Room, South Africa, 2007.

Also from South Africa, Nulaid Eggs uses Jong-il's likeness in egg form to illustrate a bad egg.

Amnesty International
Ad Agency: Contrapunto BBDO, Madrid, Spain, 2008.

Amnesty International
"See no evil?"
Ad Agency: LINs, Malaysia, 2008.

Amnesty International
"Your signature has the power"
Ad Agency: TBWA, Paris, France, 2008.

2008 saw a volley of ad rockets fired by Amnesty International against North Korea's supreme leader as well as others.

Contrapunto BBDO used the fly on the nose (using Amnesty's logo) as a symbol and visual metaphor for human rights abuses which is as plain as the nose on their face, right in front of these leaders' eyes and yet never quite visible to them.

The campaign from LINs in Malaysia is not quite as clear. It uses the recent optical illusion meme of staring at a point (in this case a red crosshair mark) for several minutes and then looking at a white surface to reveal a face illusion. These directions aren't given in the ad and therefore assumed that people know what to do when viewing it. Also there is a tenuous link between this and the ad's message ("See no evil?") which may have been somewhat lost in translation (?).

The final ad here, by TBWA Paris, is the most clear and powerful (and also featured in my Gaddafi blog post).

Reporters Without Borders
"Only a free press can hurt them.
Support our fight."
Ad Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Paris, France, 2010

Reporters Without Borders and Saatchi & Saatchi Paris put together a campaign last year which reverts to the visual metaphor of a crushed press image of global dictators.

Benetton, "UNHATE" campaign
Ad Agency: Fabrica, Italy, 2011.

Benetton's recent "UNHATE" campaign, was able to manufacture a final kiss (kiss of death?) between Kim and South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. This was an interesting campaign featuring several adversarial world leaders in intimate positions.

Amnesty International Portugal, "Tyrannybook" app
Ad Agency: Leo Burnett, Iberia, 2010.

Kim Jong-il profile, Tyrannybook.

Tyrannybook, a digital app designed and implemented by Leo Burnett Iberia in for Amnesty International Portugal in 2010, This was a social network (which has since been discontinued) dedicated to the surveillance of some of the most tyrannical world leaders that violate human rights.

Modelled on the look and aesthetics of Facebook, both users and the organization can update leaders' profiles on their most recent abuses. Users could also link up as allies and participate in group discussions, exchange points of view and discuss current events.

While this app has now expired, it may have been a foretelling of the role Facebook would play in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising through the Middle East.


With Kim Jong-il kicking the bucket, advertisers now have one less dictator to use in their messages. 2011 has been a terrible year for oppressive global leaders.