Kiwoom Securities (039490) has ended the advertising campaign it had been running with actor Yoo Hae-jin. The company says the campaign wrapped up on its originally planned schedule, but the timing coincided with a historical distortion controversy surrounding the film "Assassin(s)," in which Yoo appears, as protests spread to advertisers — leading some to suggest the fallout played a part.
Kiwoom Securities recently ended the campaign featuring Yoo and is preparing a new one, according to the financial investment industry on the 2nd. The comment function is currently disabled on the brokerage's YouTube ad videos featuring Yoo. Kiwoom Securities signed a one-year endorsement deal with Yoo in April and had been running ads promoting key financial products such as retirement pensions.
"The advertising campaign featuring actor Yoo Hae-jin has ended, and we are preparing a new advertising campaign," a Kiwoom Securities official said. The brokerage maintains that the campaign ended according to its original schedule. While the campaign is over, the endorsement contract with Yoo itself is understood to remain in place.
Still, the industry is focusing on the fact that the campaign's end overlapped with the spread of the "Assassin(s)" controversy. After the film's release, the dispute extended into advertising, with protest comments piling up on the social media accounts and YouTube channels of companies that some of the film's cast members endorse. Protest comments also flooded social media ad posts and YouTube videos for a fast-food brand that Yoo endorses, and its comment function is now closed.
"Assassin(s)" is a film based on the 1974 shooting of first lady Yuk Young-soo, following detectives and reporters as they track down who was behind the incident. The historical distortion controversy erupted because the film includes content suggesting possibilities at odds with the government's official finding that Yuk died from a bullet fired by Mun Se-gwang, a Korean resident of Japan. The production team said the film "was not made to newly establish any particular historical conclusion or to deny or distort existing facts."
