Criticism is pouring out online over JTBC’s new Saturday-Sunday drama “Snowdrop” advertisement being caught at Jongno 3-ga Station in Seoul.
This is because “Snowdrop” has been pointed out to have undermined the democratization movement and glorified the National Security Planning Department (National Intelligence Service), which cooperated with the dictatorship.
According to the Seoul Transportation Corporation and others on December 1st, advertisements for “Snowdrop” will be hung at Jongno 3-ga Station from December 1st to 15th.
The advertisement is paid for by BLACKPINK‘s Vietnamese fan club, and will be transmitted 257 times a day, 10 seconds at a time. Earlier, the fan club also executed similar advertisements in the Gasan Digital Complex area.
“Snowdrop”’s advertisement at Jongno Station is receiving keen attention online. Netizens are saying that the advertisements at Jongno Station, the center of Korea’s June Democracy Movement, are inappropriate, referring to the controversy over the drama’s distortion of history.
Earlier, “Snowdrop” was embroiled in controversy over glorifying spies after it was leaked that the drama’s setting is about a prestigious university student/activist turning out to be a North Korean spy.
Although the “Snowdrop” side explained, “The background and the motif behind the main events in ‘Snowdrop’ is the political situation surrounding the 1987 presidential elections, not the pro-democracy movement. The drama portrays a fictional story about the military regime, the National Security Planning, and others in power at the time colluding with the North Korean dictatorship and planning a conspiracy to retain their power”, the work is still receiving harsh criticism from viewers.
Rather, the controversy is growing as the historical refutation of the “Snowdrop” side’s explanation continues. In particular, in relation to the “Snowdrop” side’s explanation on the agent of the Agency for National Security Planning in the drama as “an overseas part agent unrelated to spy manipulation”, the “East Berlin spy manipulation” incident of the Agency for National Security Planning in 1967 is being mentioned.
Netizens are showing various reactions such as “Will subway advertisements be taken down if they really distort history?”, “I will protest against the subway station right now”, “It seems like they are putting advertisements in Jongno on purpose”…
One netizen criticized, “The more you advertise, the worse it will be for actors. I don’t know what you are thinking. There is a problem with the cast who chose the work, and their fans are also problematic.”
