hankyoreh

By Kim Jae-seob, Senior Staff Writer

Advertising company Cheil Worldwide, a subsidiary of the Samsung Group, is suspected of receiving a prize at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival (Cannes Lions) with a “fake” advertisement. If this turns out to be true, it may give way to controversy at another major Samsung subsidiary. This follows controversy at Samsung Techwin for problems with the K-9 self-propelled artillery and at Samsung SDS for errors with the National Education Information System. The fallout is expected to be particularly great since in the press material about the award, Cheil promoted the “creative management” of Lee Seo-hyun, the second daughter of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, as the background to winning the award.

　The Aug. 1 issue of the current events weekly Hankyoreh 21 reported that Cheil Worldwide is suspected of winning five awards at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, including a Grand Prix in the media section, for a “virtual store” advertisement it never ran. The Cannes Lions festival, called the Olympics of advertising, strictly limits submissions to advertisements that have actually been run in the media.

　The advertisement in question was installed on screen doors at Hangangjin Station on Seoul Subway’s Line 6, and promoted smartphone shopping at Samsung Tesco Homeplus’s “Subway Virtual Store.” If smartphone users scanned the QR code in the product photos attached to the screen door and sent it online to Homeplus, Homeplus would deliver the item. Cheil claimed that thanks to running the virtual shop, Homeplus’s online members increased by 76 percent, online sales increased 130 percent and Homeplus secured the top spot in the online market.

　Hankyoreh 21 uncovered that the virtual store that appeared in the advertisement was never actually operated. The magazine reported that Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation, which operates Line 6, said the ad was filmed for two and a half hours from 10 p.m. on Feb. 28. They posted the billboard to film the advertisement and took it right down, it said, and later received a 400,000 won ($381) commission for the filming. The magazine quoted a Hangangjin Station official who said the ad was fake, and that they came one night a few months ago, put up the billboard for short time, filmed, and took it down.

　In response, an official from Cheil Worldwide told the Hankyoreh that the company received a verbal response from the Cannes Lions organizing committee that there was no problem with their submission’s qualification, and the important point was that those giving the prize were not making an issues of it.

　“Due to some royalty issues I cannot speak of the details, but we clearly ran the ad for a set period,” said the Cheil Worldwide official. “Since we decided to pay the filming commission later for marketing reasons, the Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation does not know the pertinent information.”

　An official from the Samsung Group said that due to the debate going on about Cheil Worldwide’s award from the Cannes Lions festival, the group was currently also looking into the truth of the matter internally. ascertaining the truth of the matter internally.

　Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]